Conceptual design in a high-tech environment

This article will give an overview over design process models before concentrating on the main subject: Conceptual Design, which has had less academic attention than the detail design phases. In high-tech environments specific conditions apply. This article will deal with these conditions. Some views on design in general are treated and attention is paid to the conditions and steps and to the level of abstraction, goals, people and skills. The paper identifies the crucial role of the systems engineer in the conceptual design phase. The conceptual design tasks and their results will be treated. As the conceptual designer is best aware of the overall functionality of the system and the interrelations, he is able to safeguard the concepts in later design phases and to make a good decomposition into subsystems. The paper ends with conclusions and directions for Future Work