Computer-Aided Requirement Management for Product Definition: A Methodology and Implementation

Product definition has been recognized as one of the deciding factors in designing a product for success in the marketplace. It involves a tedious elaboration process enacted between customers, marketers and designers. Difficulties associated with product definition for developing product specifications are observed as contextual mismatching, lack of definite structures in requirements, lack of structured mapping, and life-cycle requirements. Facing these difficulties, it is imperative to explore requirement management methodologies and develop computer tools to support requirement management automation. This paper introduces an approach to requirement management for product definition by evolving from similar existing products. The approach is based on recognizing functional requirement patterns from past design efforts and taking into account product migration, technological trends, competition. A two-phase methodology of functional requirement pattern recognition and pattern adoption is presented in the paper. To facilitate and demonstrate the methodology, a database system is developed to provide a computerized environment for requirement management during the product definition phase. The database system improves product definition during design and redesign efforts by integrating customer and design information all together and by reusing this information. A prototype requirement management database system is implemented for an electronics company to illustrate the feasibility and potential of the proposed methodology.