Does every end have a start?

Does every end have a start? One would think this ought to be case, but on second look things might not be so straightforward. In an electronic design project you can quite easily identify “the end” and several major intermediate milestones, such as shipping the PG tape. But can you as easily define when a project starts?

In an academic view of the design flow, there are cleanly designated phases and functions; there are nice arrows connecting these successive steps in a very logical manner. Attached is a such a flow chart I found on the internet. And that’s just one variant within many, many more similar drawings. But anyone who has had even the slightest involvement with an ASIC design project knows that this picture doesn’t account for the actual truth. Some of these tasks start before others are done. Some, like verification, only end because the schedule commands it.

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A Theoretical ASIC Design Flow

In the back-end part of the flow, things tend to be nonetheless more easily defined. In this later part of the process, automation prevails. For automation to happen, computer-readable information must be available. Therefore a specific task can be precisely timed based on initial presence of input data and final delivery of output results.

In the front-end part of the flow however, things are not so straightforward. A lot more informal effort is involved, making it harder to track an actual start. In the early phases of the cycle, it is quite common to see teams doing work in anticipation of an expected project or of an evolving specification. As things eventually solidify, the pre-work morphs into real project.

But what officializes this transition between pre-study and actual design? The project is done when the boss opens the champagne bottle, but there’s rarely such a defining moment for project starts.

What do you think? Do you have a way of defining the start of a project? When does the clock actually start ticking?

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