Analysis-Oriented Decomposition of Design Processes

This paper proposes a method to model routine design processes. The challenge addressed is that expert designers are not focused on design modeling, and design modelers are not familiar to the design process at hand. The modeling activity requires considerable time and effort. A new method is proposed that uses the original design context to derive the model content more efficiently. First, a generic design process is described with specific sub-processes and sets of information. Product development processes are modeled by stacking multiple layers of these design process models. The key concept in each model is the analysis method. The analysis method is used to retrieve the information that describes the design artifact, the application situation and the measures of quality. The way in which the analysis method leads to modeling information is demonstrated for two cases. The proposed standardization of a design process, plus a method to obtain that model, reduces the required modeling effort for new design cases. Design processes that first appear complex are broken down into smaller subsections to the point where an explicit model is made.