Client’s Challenging Situation:
Engineered projects present complications. For example, to perform a comprehensive review of a hospital’s energy-consuming equipment and build software to automate the engineering of the replacement of all inefficient energy-consuming equipment at a hospital is a complicated project. Major complications are caused by the volume and variety of equipment involved.
Scope of the Problem:
That project moves from a complicated project to a project with major complexity if you are asked to create software to automate the engineering of the replacement of all inefficient energy-consuming equipment at all of the hospitals in North America…and make sure all laws and regulations, from human resources, to labour laws, to safety standards, etc., would be fully considered and all governance risks would be managed.
Our client did not ask us to do the complicated project above or the project with major complexity described in the last paragraph. However, they asked us to build something with that level of complexity. While we cannot divulge details, this project had a remarkably interesting outcome.
Our Solution:
This project was unfamiliar territory. No question – no one has created the software solution we were asked to create. We scoped out the project in detail, having numerous conversations with our client. Much of the discussion focused on assumptions. Engineers, for example, often use assumptions to reduce complication…the history of engineering projects provides proof of what works and what does not work. For this project, there was no history because nobody had completed anything close to the project we were exploring. We agreed on assumptions and with innovative algorithms, our software solution accomplished what we were asked to do, satisfying the agreed-upon assumptions.
The Value Delivered:
Our client put the tool we built for them to effective use. Someday, I hope to be in a position to provide more details.