The Good Teacher

359  The Plan

The third stage of the design process was the plan. It is the stage that exists between knowing what needs to be made and actually making it. In most cases, it is easy to figure out where you need to begin in order to actualise your design. Logically, you start building a pyramid from its base. However some designs aren't so straightforward and easy to actualise, and thorough planning to determine the ins and outs of the process is mandatory.

This was especially important in Shuri's case since there were a lot of empty blanks between the abstract design and the tangible product she was trying to create. For instance, what kind of program was she to inscribe into the mana core? What kind of casing was she going to go with for the product? How was she to assemble everything?

You see, these were the kinds of pertinent questions that needed answering to get the design from a two-dimensional image to a three-dimensional object, which was by no means an easy feat. This was why Shuri had to spend three entire weeks just to work out all the kinks and develop a realistic plan that, if followed by any layperson, could actualise the design.

Why must the plan be finished before beginning the actualisation process?

One of the most important reasons in favour of a plan is resource allocation. Planning helps allocate resources, such as effort, budget, and materials, effectively. This ensures that the necessary resources are available when needed and prevents wastage or shortages, contributing to a smoother design process. This is especially important for Shuri since mana cores, while potentially abundant in their availability in the Sect, weren't a resource that could be squandered willy-nilly. They weren't hers, to begin with (they fell on Sect property and were thus the Sect's property). At best, Shuri would have two attempts before the financial feasibility of her product would be brought into question.

The plan also ensures that every step taken brings you closer to your goal. Creating a product blindly, without any vision, will often result in delays or deviations from the required outcome. The plan is a guide that stops you from getting distracted. In fact, the plan doesn't need to be rigid in order to achieve this. There are always unexpected detours that need to be taken midway through the creation process. However, the plan must ensure that should such detours be taken, you can ultimately return on track immediately after.

The plan also answers one of the most important aspects of creating a product, risk management. This not only refers to the dangers the creator faces when making the product but also the potential risks the user may face on using it. When you visualise yourself creating the product, and assess your actions critically, risks become evident which in turn warrants the implementation of risk management procedures.

Needless to say, the plan is just as crucial as any other step of the design process and is often the toughest since it cradles the boundary between the theory and the reality.

Shuri struggled a lot when creating the plan because she had no idea where to begin. This did comfort her a little because it was better to struggle now than afterwards. One thing she realised early on was that the product she was trying to create could not be approached like any other product she'd developed till now.

Basically, to date, she has created two classes of products. The first class encompassed everything that was without magic - things that were tangible. The second class encompassed everything that was purely magical - things that weren't tangible. The former was defined as hardware using the common tongue. The 'hard' component didn't necessarily mean that the products had to be hard or robust. It was 'hard' because it could be touched, and had limited flexibility and variability.

Using similar logic, Shuri decided to name the class of products built on pure magic as software. It was 'soft' because it could not be touched, and was flexible and variable.

The chair she had designed for her room and was using right now was hardware. The Calculate-Core was pure software. The wand she was using to cast spells was an amalgamation of hardware and software. Similarly, the wand for the visually impaired was a mix between the two classes.

Therefore, Shuri had to draft multiple versions of the potential program that would go inside the mana core, and then build an interface housing that the user would interact with and operate the core. Another limiting factor was that the size of the core and housing together could not exceed the size of a human palm. This meant that there was ultimately limited space for her to squeeze the program into.

This iterative process of designing a program, modifying the interface and housing, and simulating the result mentally was unbelievably difficult. Especially because it was impossible to predict with utter certainty if the interface would be successful unless it was attempted practically.

In addition to all of this, the hardest part for Shuri was to enumerate all the possible combinations the wand to achieve and list out the way it would be obtained. The whole wand was a puzzle piece, after all, and she was the puzzle master working backwards from the solution to figure out exactly how you could get there without messing up others along the way. The difficulty of this process grew exponentially with each new configuration envisioned and brought into the fray. Sometimes, she even had to scrap her entire design because she found a simpler way to introduce the new combination.

Nonetheless, Shuri persevered, and a feasible solution was formed as a blueprint.

Next, she had to work through the design once again to determine all the resources she would need to put together a bill of materials. Lead times needed to be taken into consideration so that she would have the required resource when it was needed, instead of having to order it when it was to be used and wasting time, or ordering it too early and wasting resources in storing the materials. It also includes work orders for any components that need machining beforehand - if components are available and can be sourced from trusted third parties, then it is preferred as it can save time and has a level of guarantee in its quality.

The bill of materials would go through the Sect's procurement department (which was tethered to the VTC), which would then execute their namesake and procure them for her. This took a few more weeks, during which a few significant changes transpired within the Sect.

Although Shuri had advanced to the Foundation Establishment realm, she was still eligible to unlock the mana measurement add-on to her mana sense. While it wasn't possible for her to exhaust her mana core in a mana sink region to replicate the procedure, it was possible to apply an equivalency of how much mana a known spell would consume and assign numeric values to it. This in turn unlocks the program would fit in the palm-sized core. She went further and reduced the core's size making it 16:47

just smaller than a teenager's palm.

the feature of measuring mana with the mana sense. After undergoing the procedure, she could now observe, numerically, the mana in everything that was open to her senses. This significantly improved her understanding of programming, as she could now configure the program to use precise quantities of mana.

This resulted in her overhauling the program altogether, making it more compact than it already was. This allowed her to bring back all the branches of spells she had previously sacrificed to ensure that the program would fit in the palm-sized core. She went further and reduced the core's size making it just smaller than a teenager's palm.

Of course with a change in the software, a hardware overhaul followed, which in turn required a redrafting of a bill of materials.

At this point, Shuri was exhausted and her hands were itching to program a core or machine some wood. So, she decided to forgo a second draft of her plan and moved on to the execution process.

As Shuri laid out the blueprint for the program before her, and prepped all the required apparatus, she did a once-over of her self-proclaimed masterpiece.

The program was unlike any she had ever drawn or seen before, and that too with good reason. This was because the program was inherently broken, requiring the hardware to bridge its gaps. It was an unconnected amalgamation of spell circles that were modules, with mana channels leading out of the core, which would then be drawn through the mana lines embedded into the hardware and joining up at other regions of the core thus completing the circuit. This was the essence with which different spells could be crafted and cast. This also meant that in order for the core to stabilise after programming, she would need to assemble the hardware alongside it.

The hardware in question was also something that required special machining. She decided to go with the same materials used to make a standard wand, the Menryl Tree wood and Illuminescent Banyan sinews. The Menryl wood was used to make the housing, with the Banyan sinews weaved through it (with some highly precise spell casting) to create mana-conductive channels that would complete the circuit. This was done by The Burning Forge after she provided them with the machining instructions since there were experts there who had more experience in this process than she did.

And matching her expectations, the machined pieces were ready and in position before her.

Shuri placed the designated core on the stand and took a deep breath to calm her nerves. Once her mind was clear, she brought forth the image that was to be inscribed and held it in the foreground.

She moved her hand over the gem at the side of the stand and channelled her mana into it, causing an ethereal spherical projection to burst outwards.

Shuri cast her gaze around the projection, searching for the optimal place to start her work until her gaze narrowed on a particular segment.

She released another breath and brought the inscription pen onto the core.

And with that action, she was ready to move from the planning to the creation stage.

Word Count: 1712

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