December at last and it’s starting to look a lot like Christmas. We’re closing a few projects, preparing for brand new work in the New Year and getting in the spirit with mince pies and DIY fairy lights.

But there is also some other excitement in the air.

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The force is awakening

Christmas may bring the inevitable rewards of sherry, merriment, and a well-earned holiday, but what could be more exciting to a proud band of sci-fi geeks, engineers, and developers than the gift of a new Star Wars film. True joy and peace on earth!

Since it’s release was announced, discussions have been gaining momentum and it’s been a long year of waiting. As engineers we haven’t simply debated the looming Mark Hamill secret or tried to tie up the inexplicable plotlines – we’ve been asking the real questions. The engineering questions.

And we’ve noticed a few things.

The Empire is a sad example of a huge enterprise which has completely failed to understand the importance of an all-encompassing quality management system and a good design process. Without supporting the endeavours of a fictional tyrannical and oppressive organisation, we believe that if a few simple development rules were applied the Death Star explosion was easily avoidable.

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Protect your IP, to the death

If you’re developing the jewel in your crown – in this case, a gargantuan spherical space station, planned to be over 100km in diameter - perhaps don’t leave your schematics lying around. File them in a manilla folder or take it to the cloud. Or go even further. Get a patent or sign an NDA. If Lord Vader was using a robust document management system, maybe this instrumental error could have been avoided.

We go to great lengths to ensure our customers are safe in the knowledge their most treasured ideas are protected. On first contact, we issue mutual NDA’s, our team are bound by staff NDAs and for military grade projects we have senior, security cleared engineers. When your prototype is ready for our potential investors to see, we can advise you on patenting and further IP protection.

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Specification creep is a minefield

Super laser capable of obliterating an entire planet in a single shot, powered by around 10,000 turbo laser batteries, 2,600 ion cannons and roughly 768 tractor beam projectors – CHECK.

Hangars for assault shuttles, support ships and 10,000 TIE fighters - CHECK.

Recreational areas for 300,000 Stormtroopers and pilots - because let’s face it, morale must be rock bottom – CHECK.

Tough defence system? – Erm, goodbye prototype Deathstar.

In the real world the key functionalities and features must be always on your radar and not compromised as development begins. As part of our five-phase process, we pin down the specification in the first instance, ensuring all parties are completely satisfied with the plan moving forwards. In the event the objectives go off course, time is taken to ensure innovation is controlled and correctly implemented.

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Reviewing is essential

The Empire proved so pertinent in their colossal failings that a good design review might have just been just the ticket. The endless mill of Deathstar scrap and rework, the subplot lifeblood of the original trilogy could have been dodged if the development wasn’t handled so carelessly. We can only imagine the sign-off process, but we guess it wasn’t lined with red tape. The result is a product marketed as impenetrable but seemingly penetrable by one man in an X-wing the following day in a real-life test environment.

Design reviews are essential to our workflow and our ISO:9001 quality system. Review everything; review it until the whole team is confident in all aspects of the design, no footprints left unchecked, no cathodes left undesignated.

Despite the idiocy of the Empire and their refusal to foster an environment where quality and review is paramount, their Deathstar story does teach us one thing. If you’ve got an idea you want to develop, a prototype is a good place to start spinning out your innovation.

With a few cycles of the iteration wheel, your product could be bigger and better than your first imagining. Controlling this development with a good process is the answer.

You may want rapid results, but unless the situation sees you fighting an out-of-hand, Jedi powered, rebellion force, embarking on the road to product development is not a journey to be taken lightly or hastily.

If you’d like to chat to Cubik about an idea or concept and want to find out more about our bespoke inventor’s development programme, get in touch to set up a consultation. We do draw the line with any space-based, ‘take over the world’, type agencies.

Happy Star Wars viewing to all and have a Merry Christmas – we’re off to the cinema!