Effective project design also requires the experience to know how and when to apply these techniques. Since the bulk of project design work happens at the beginning of a project, an even that happens relativity infrequently, under regular work situations it may take decades for someone to have enough practice to be any good at project design. The project design clinic solves this problem by accelerating your exposure to the practices of modern software project design and becoming skilled in using the IDesign Method for system and project design. There is nothing like learning from a true master of the craft who can instantly recognize your stumbling blocks, what you are doing wrong and how to improve on it. The IDesign architect will review and critique your approach, your technique, your use of the tools and of course the resulting project design. The result is a perfect forum for focused, high caliber discussions and mentorship.

In this five days, highly interactive event you will learn, experiment, and exercise project design techniques on several projects. Additionally, all projects are based on real-world systems. Along the way we will walk you through the steps of project design, share insight and best practices, and also help develop the “soft skills” that are so important to success such as the project design review presentation.

The project design clinic starts with a quick overview and recap of the various project design techniques, followed by a demonstration of how to perform project design quickly and correctly using our tools and templates. Next we present the first project to design, and you have to analyze and design the project. This is done iteratively, in phases. At the end of each project or design phase the IDesign architect presents the school’s solution (what actually took place with this real-life project). The school solution serves as the base line for the next phase. At the end of each project we debrief the effort and identify what to improve in the next project.

The various projects vary by the planning assumptions, complexity, and the constraints they present. We will also use several estimation techniques for the activities and the project as a whole, and compare those with your results. By the end of the clinic you will be able to confidently and decisively design any software project regardless of the circumstances, and will always be able to identify the best course of action across cost, schedule, and risk.

While the focus of the project design clinic in on the thought process, the critical steps, and workflow of designing projects, having good tools certainly helps. Each clinic attendee will also receive a student copy of PDEx, the IDesign's original project design extension for Microsoft Project, and the world's first dedicated project design tool, which they will use during the clinic.