A design review is a milestone within a
product development
New product development (NPD) or product development in business and engineering covers the complete process of launching a new product to the market. Product development also includes the renewal of an existing product and introducing a product ...
process whereby a
design
A design is the concept or proposal for an object, process, or system. The word ''design'' refers to something that is or has been intentionally created by a thinking agent, and is sometimes used to refer to the inherent nature of something ...
is evaluated against its
requirements
In engineering, a requirement is a condition that must be satisfied for the output of a work effort to be acceptable. It is an explicit, objective, clear and often quantitative description of a condition to be satisfied by a material, design, pro ...
in order to verify the outcomes of previous activities and identify issues before committing to—and, if need be, to re-prioritise—further work.
The ultimate design review, if successful, therefore triggers the product launch or product release.
The conduct of design reviews is compulsory as part of
design controls, when developing products in certain regulated contexts such as
medical devices
A medical device is any device intended to be used for medical purposes. Significant potential for hazards are inherent when using a device for medical purposes and thus medical devices must be proved safe and effective with reasonable assura ...
.
By definition, a review must include persons who are external to the design team.
Contents of a design review
In order to evaluate a
design
A design is the concept or proposal for an object, process, or system. The word ''design'' refers to something that is or has been intentionally created by a thinking agent, and is sometimes used to refer to the inherent nature of something ...
against its requirements, a number of means may be considered, such as:
*Physical tests.
*Engineering simulations.
*Examinations (Walk-through).
Timing of design reviews
Most formalised
systems engineering process
Systems engineering is an interdisciplinary field of engineering and engineering management that focuses on how to design, integrate, and manage complex systems over their life cycles. At its core, systems engineering utilizes systems thinkin ...
es recognise that the cost of correcting a fault increases as it progresses through the
development process. Additional effort spent in the early stages of development to discover and correct errors is therefore likely to be worthwhile. Design reviews are example of such an effort.
Therefore, a number of design reviews may be carried out, for example to evaluate the design against different sets of criteria (consistency,
usability
Usability can be described as the capacity of a system to provide a condition for its users to perform the tasks safely, effectively, and efficiently while enjoying the experience. In software engineering, usability is the degree to which a softw ...
, ease of
localisation, environmental) or during various stages of the design process.
See also
*
Design review (U.S. government)
*
Hazard and operability study
References
Engineering concepts
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