Abstract: When installing equipment in a complex system such as a telephone exchange, there are often a variety of possible solutions to the problem faced by the planner, using different types of equipment and providing different capabilities, e.g. spare capacity or extra capabilities. Not all personnel will necessarily be familiar with all types of equipment, which can have a practical limit on the installations an individual can work on. To overcome this, a planning system is disclosed which stores information relating to equipment types suitable for providing the different types of functionality required, and also stores information relating to the availability of such equipment types, and generates proposals for providing the functionality according to the availability and suitability of each equipment type. These may be ranked by cost, complexity, availability of components, or other criteria.