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TopEngineering Design
Ralph Ford and Chris Coulston (2007) defines the Engineering Design domain as a sequence of steps (with iterations) that can be grouped into a process phase (Problem Identification, Requirements Specification, and Concept Generation) and a technological phase (Detailed Design, Prototyping and Construction, System Integration, System Test, Delivery & Acceptance, and Maintenance & Upgrade), as we depict in Figure 1.
Figure 1. A comprehensive view of the engineering design process - adapted from (Ford & Chris Coulston, 2007)
Project Management can be seen as an engineering process where managing and defining scope acquires special importance. Being sometimes poor listeners and too much confident in the possibilities of technology, we, engineers, need to be aware that it is from the quality of these first phases of project management/and engineering design processes that much is earned to the final quality of the product to be designed and developed.
The process phase (design) is critical to the definition of the scope of any engineering design project and the view that the design process is not only a technological endeavor but also a social one has already invaded even the most pure technological domains (Cagan et al., 2001). These authors propose a method that intending to manage the “fuzzy front end of product development” recognizes a socio-technical co-evolution of products and markets.