Take a project approach to securing a facility

Jan 1, 2001 12:00 PM, JAMES G. FORT

Taking a facility security project from concept through design and implementation requires a step-by-step strategy that includes structuring a team, assessing needs, involving users, and using milestones to keep plans on track. The following outline may prove useful.

Preliminary steps/Needs analysis The planning process should begin by determining the company's current security operation, and remaining security needs. Elements include:

Defining assets. Interviews with senior management, front-line managers, and operating personnel can identify assets and establish goals and objectives.

Threat definition/vulnerability ana-lysis/site assessment. Identifying and prioritizing risks, and analyzing the strengths and weaknesses of the physical plant and campus.

Reviewing policy. Targeting ways to make affordable changes in the security structure.

Identifying users. The people who interact with the security system, including the physical users of the system and those who monitor it, maintain it, and interface with it, can provide input to increase likelihood the final system will be implemented successfully.

Funding. Address funding options and examine the impact each option would have on procurement, scheduling, and other aspects of the plan. The team should be ready to project preliminary costs. Combining the overall cost estimate with the scheduled tasks can yield a budgetary funding profile.

Requirements. Define what the system should do. The security team builds on the previously gathered information to establish the programmatic, physical and technical bounds of the project. They assess what users expect from a security system, and how management's security goals can be implemented with the least inconvenience to users.

Planning for design The scope of the work during the design phase will include:

Contract requirements. Explain how the job will be priced, either cost-plus or lump-sum, and whether the company will go design-bid-build or design-build. With design-bid-build, the project team provides a detailed package to many different companies as a basis to solicit bids. With design-build, the installer has already been chosen.

Project requirements. Explain the non-technical criteria of the project, such as planning and scheduling, reporting requirements, and the drawings and specifications needed.

The design plan should include a schedule identifying project milestones, the resulting critical path, responsibilities of all participants, and review periods and coordination points.

Design requirements. The design requirements cover the design details specific to the project such as the speed at which alarms should report. During this phase, the team specifies project goals and how the goals will be met. Essential elements of the security project must be included as design criteria. The next step is to develop a baseline design, or conceptual design, using the design criteria.

The conceptual design establishes the direction of the design by producing road-map documents that pave the way for the preliminary and detailed design plans. The team should create preliminary system diagrams to show the system structure and relationships of components. These documents should show fundamental interconnections, quantities, general types, responsibilities, existing components, and relative groupings. The system diagram shows the overall system at a glance.

Develop a preliminary component list from the diagram to provide a basis for the conceptual cost estimates, which are more accurate than the preliminary budgetary cost estimates. Set parameters to avoid "design creep," which occurs when management tries to add new elements to the plan as new technologies become available.

During the review of the conceptual design, cost estimates can be examined to determine whether budget constraints mandate a different approach to the system design. Using this strategy, the company can be sure not to design or begin to construct a system it cannot afford to complete.

Using information from the physical site surveys, the team should also develop a preliminary site layout to locate major system equipment. For example, the team would locate uninterruptible power supplies and major locations of system components.

Design phase The reports that are generated in the planning process should be integrated into a conceptual design report (CDR) to be distributed to specified project team members. Communicate with equipment and services suppliers to confirm technical concepts. Introducing providers and installers to the design concept at this time greatly reduces risk.

Preliminary design. The CDR is used directly in the development of the more detailed preliminary design. The system diagram, including system-level components, is substantially completed during this phase.

The system diagram and description should be used as a basis for an equipment list, including all components, their names, basic specifications, reference documents, and other necessary information.

It is now time to produce physical system layouts, define preliminary space and environmental requirements, and identify required modifications. In the earlier planning stages, the team may have indicated that the plan calls for an alarm in a particular room, but at this stage, the exact location is determined. Specifications should be developed to identify long-lead items and initiate procurement.

A preliminary design report should be distributed to a review team that might include plant operations people or other users.

Final design phase. Specifications must be completed to allow procurement of components and equipment. The specifications should be grouped together to allow for package procurement of similar devices.

The team will complete the construction specifications to define the installation effort and responsibilities of the installer. Testing and validation responsibilities and requirements should be also be specified.

Using detailed equipment lists and specifications and drawings, the design team can develop a final construction cost estimate. Profits and escalation factors should be included. The process should also include a companion construction schedule showing major milestones.

The planning process can be as detailed or as limited as appropriate. As with all projects, change will occur throughout the process. Proper planning can minimize change and ensure that the process stays on track until the system is fully operational.

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© 2008 Penton Media Inc.

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