When it comes to planning, Design can be the Cinderella department. Often promises are made to customers without reference to the ability of the Design department to deliver, resulting in broken promises, disappointed customers, annoyed reps and demoralised designers.
If this sounds familiar, have a look at the DesignPlan module available as an extra for SPOCS32. DesignPlan works like S32Plan (the production planner). New requirements for design are created when Specifications are raised, and automatically create design tasks in the planner. It is then up to the Design Manager to assign these to the designers, at the same time adjusting the tasks for more realistic times.
