Problem Definition Flashcards
What is problem definition?
- understanding the problem, diagrams, maps, fundamental principles that are relevant, etc.
- You generate methodology or strategy
- you critically evaluate general technologies on market
What are the steps of problem definition?
- Understand the problem
- clarify objectives
- establish requirements
- identify constraints
- formulate assumptions
- formulate design requirements
What is understanding the problem?
- you discuss with the customer and make sure you’re on the same “wavelength” / speaking the same language to UNDERSTAND THE PROBLEM
there are 3 scenarios:
- customer is knowledgeable and the problem and potential solution
- customer is knowledge about the problem (educate the customer)
- customer is not knowledgeable about the problem or engineering work (educate the customer)
What is clarifying the objectives?
You want to establish:
Goals: general guidelines of what we want to achieve from the project
Objectives: Strategies or implementation steps to reach the goal. What, how, when, who, where?
Use an objective tree in this step
What is establishing the requirments?
Customer needs: a vague set of customer’s wishes
Customer requirements: detailed breakdown of product characteristics and functions
functional: what should the system do?
non-functional: characteristics, constraints, and limitations
What is identifying the constraints?
You just identify the constraints:
scope
functional
health and safety
manufactuability
timing
economics
environmental
legal/ethical
social
What is “formulate assumptions”?
You formulate assumptions:
they’re required because of the limits of human knowledge / not being able to see the future
Assumptions can vary
What is formulate design requirements?
The last step where you formulate the design requirements.
Design requirements state the important characteristics that your design must meet in order to be successful.
