How do you set project limits for system design?

1 What are project limits?

Project limits are the boundaries and criteria that define the scope and quality of a system design project. They help to clarify the problem statement, the expected outcomes, the assumptions, and the risks of the project. Project limits can be determined based on business needs, user needs, technical feasibility, budget, and timeline. For example, project limits may include target audience and user personas of the system, main use cases and user stories of the system, performance, reliability, scalability, security, and usability requirements of the system, data sources, formats, and volumes of the system, technology stack, frameworks, and tools of the system, as well as cost, time and resource constraints of the project.

2 Why are project limits important?

Project limits are essential to guide the system design process and ensure that the system meets the expectations and needs of the stakeholders. They can help focus design efforts on the most important and relevant aspects of the problem, avoiding unnecessary complexity and over-engineering. Project limits also reduce ambiguity and confusion among the design team and stakeholders, facilitating communication and collaboration. Additionally, they enable trade-off analysis and comparison of different design alternatives, as well as measure and evaluate the success and quality of the system.

3 How to set project limits?

Setting project limits is an iterative and dynamic process that may change as the project progresses and new information emerges. To set project limits effectively, you should define the problem statement and goals of the project concisely, identify and analyze stakeholders and their needs, expectations, and preferences, research and benchmark to understand the current state of the art, best practices, and gaps in the market. Establishing functional and non-functional requirements based on user needs and business needs, prioritizing requirements based on their value, urgency, and feasibility, determining data requirements and data sources of the system, choosing technology stack and tools that suit the requirements and constraints of the project, estimating cost, time, and resources needed for the project with achievable milestones, identifying and mitigating risks and assumptions of the project as well as documenting and communicating project limits to design team and stakeholders are all important steps to consider.

4 How to use project limits?

Once the project limits are set, they can be used as a reference and a guide for the system design process. These limits can help to generate and evaluate design ideas and alternatives based on the requirements and constraints, create and validate prototypes and models of the system according to user stories and use cases, test and verify the system in terms of performance and quality criteria, review and refine the system with feedback and results, as well as deliver and deploy the system based on milestones and expectations.

5 How to update project limits?

Project limits are not static, but dynamic and flexible. As the project progresses and new information and feedback is obtained, project limits may need to be updated and revised. This can be done by monitoring and measuring progress and performance, collecting and analyzing data from users, stakeholders, and the design team, identifying and addressing issues, revisiting the problem statement, goals, requirements, and constraints of the project, adjusting and modifying project limits based on changes or improvements of the project, and documenting and communicating changes to the design team and stakeholders. Obtaining feedback and approval from stakeholders is also necessary.

6 Here’s what else to consider

This is a space to share examples, stories, or insights that don’t fit into any of the previous sections. What else would you like to add?