Engineering Solutions
There are a multitude of corporations that specialise in providing unique engineering solutions for any number of technical challenges that our modern, integrated existence demands.
An example of this is Information Technology. Companies specialising in software programming are hired to design a solution tailored to a client's specific requirements. In many such cases, there are no off-the-shelf programs that can do what the client requires, so a team of dedicated software engineers work for weeks or months to design a purpose-made system that can meet the needs the client has identified.
Before the design process can start, the software engineering company will set up several meetings with the client, where a comprehensive list of requirements is drafted. The client has to communicate his requirements, based on his business needs, expansion plans and possible future scope for extensions to his business - and consequently his IT solution.
The software engineering company must take full cognisance of the client's need and devise a draft suggestion of their solution that will meet the needs. The software engineers have a better understanding of what is possible in terms of software design, tailoring and engineering, and the client has a better understanding of his own business requirements and special needs. A successful engineering solution can only come forth from an extensive communication process between IT and client. The two parties must meet halfway and arrive at a happy compromise at a cost (and over a period) that suits the client's needs.
A common problem in the creation of engineering solutions is scope creep. It is the duty of the engineers to ensure that the specification that the client has provided is comprehensive enough. They must pre-empt possible extensions, modifications and specification changes. If the client makes too many changes to the running project, the workload of the engineers will eventually snowball and they will fall behind budget. There must be a pre-agreement to stipulate when additional charges for running changes will be incurred. The basic architecture of the solution must be flexible and have scope for changes without having to reinvent the wheel.