Mastering Design Review Meetings for Network Engineering: Ensuring Efficiency and Value

What is a design review meeting?

Network engineering and design review meetings serve to present an ideal design concept. This concept may involve adding new functionality to the network to address an identified network availability risk or improve a known limitation in a component of the existing network design, such as a flaw in the routing protocol design or things your incident management system isn't doing well; The reasons for review, debate, and approval vary depending on what the engineer or owners are proposing. These design review meetings are very important to ensure that the proposed changes will achieve their intended outcomes without compromising any other aspect of the existing network. This includes avoiding any potential issues that could cause existing components to break or fail, resulting in customer downtime or unnecessary operational burden. It also ensures that the organization does not add anything that does not bring value to its customers, whether internal or external. Therefore, we must eliminate unnecessary details and only incorporate changes that will promote value to the business, as well as to our engineering and operations practices.

So, how does it work?

The engineer who owns the idea creates a document that describes everything the group of reviewers needs to know about the 'what,' 'why,' and 'how,' including pre- and post-scenarios. Therefore, this document must contain the necessary data and evidence to support the idea. Some organizations are completely 'data-driven,' meaning that progress is only made if you can effectively communicate and justify the need for and approach to the idea. The challenge here is to produce a design document that can be consumed in one sitting. Therefore, it is essential to eliminate unnecessary details and ensure that the entire document can be outlined in just a few pages. It is important to note that this is not a low-level design document but rather a design review document. Therefore, the focus should be on making it efficient and concise.

During these meetings, engineers spend some time reviewing documents and silently commenting on them. They also prepare their own questions so they can ask these during the rounds of debates. Design review meetings serve the purpose of understanding the proposed design and its rationale in detail. This allows other engineers, particularly those with more experience, to leverage their knowledge and skills to identify any potential gaps, risks related to availability, unnecessary complexities and inefficiencies, unforeseen costs, and additional operational burdens that may arise. But anyone can truly and magically contribute to it!

Pitfalls to avoid at all costs for a successful design review meeting

This part of the process is where I see some things that you must absolutely avoid when reviewing design documents. Please bear with me:

You are free and encouraged to ask about anything related to the design, even the silliest questions. Don't be afraid to ask what some may consider "dumb questions" because there are no dumb questions! Everything matters, every concern and doubt. If you don't understand something, anything, even if it is a fundamental thing about your own network, say it and ask. Everyone must support your questions and concerns. Talk to your manager and colleagues if you feel disrespected in a working environment where people are allowed to be extra-judgmental and rude. Fortunately, I have not seen this happening in meetings I attend for many years, but I have witnessed this behavior in other organizations in the past.

When you provide feedback, please give context by all means necessary. Avoid simply stating phrases like "it won't work," "I don't like this," or "I don't think we should be pursuing this." Instead, provide the necessary context for your judgment and decisions. Consider setting aside time with the design owner to discuss and help him or her address the changes required to the concept. This will benefit their career and contribute to the organization's success in hiring and developing the best talent.

Be supportive and help individuals identify issues and areas for improvement. Please let them learn what they need to understand, fix, and adapt the concept for another review. When you reject an idea or design, please don't use your seniority or role level as the sole basis for the decision. While it may be a factor to consider, relying solely on seniority does not effectively or accurately convey your point. Simply being more senior does not significantly contribute to the organization's goal achievement in these design review meetings. Instead, provide context and explain to the owner and other engineers why we should refrain from pursuing that idea.

Conclusions

Remember: the key is to understand what is being proposed, why it is being proposed, and the value it will bring to the organization. It is important to assess how the proposal aligns with customers' expectations and determine the appropriate adoption strategy if approved. The focus should not be on criticizing or discouraging individuals. Therefore, providing sound, concise, and proper feedback is essential to foster idea generation and innovation within the organization.

I hope you have found this article useful! As always, I am delighted to share my thoughts with my network on LinkedIn.

Stay Curious, Grow Pro, Achieve Success.