CST315 Software Enterprise : Design Activity ReflectionFall 2012, September 4

Objectives

  • Understand the phases of the Engineering Design Process
  • Consider how the Software Design Process may differ from the Engineering Design Process

Background

In class on Thursday we conducted a dynamic creative design activity in the StartupLabs. This lab’s purpose is to get you to reflect on that activity and understand how it relates to the design process. You should work with your original team to answer the discussion questions below. Please type them into a blank Word document, include all of your names at the top, and indicate your Team number. Name your file Team#.docx and submit it via the Moodle website.

Task 1: Consider your design

Answer the following discussion questions under the header “Task 1” in your submission document. Be sure to number each answer.

  1. Who did your team consider as the customers or end users of your design? Did you identify them when doing the activity?
  2. How many design alternatives did your team consider? Did you have to stop “throw out” any initial ideas and go to another alternative?
  3. What would be the next thing you think you need to do to move your design forward?

Task 2: The Engineering Design Process

Your reading was about the general engineering design process. This task asks you to evaluate your process against the general engineering design process steps found on pages 92-93 of that process.

  1. What steps of the general engineering design process did your team conduct? List each that your team did, and describe what you did as a team as part of that process step.
  2. On page 99 in section 4.3 of your reading is a section dedicated to describing the Generate Concepts step in more detail. Using a structured process approach, it describes 4 sub-activities: Decompose the problem, Search externally for Ideas, Search Internally for Ideas, and Explore Systematically. Discuss the extent to which your team did (or did not do) each of these 4 sub-activities.
  3. There was one particular technique we used in class called a Jigsaw, where you visited each other’s teams and were allowed to provide input or even copy ideas from other teams into your ideas. What process step in the general engineering design process does the Jigsaw best fit and why?

Task 3: The IDEO process

I will show you the IDEO process in class. Considering that video, answer the following questions:

  1. What phases of the general engineering design process did you see in the video? What phases were emphasized? What phases were missing? Give concrete examples from the video.
  2. What do you think of the IDEO final solution? Are there aspects they did not consider that your team did?

Task 4: Software Design

Software design has many aspects in common with general engineering design, but there are some unique aspects of developing software that can significantly impact the design process. We haven’t discussed design specific to software yet, so as a foreshadowing question, answer the question below:

  1. What are the aspects of designing and developing software products that impact (change) the engineering design process? What steps of the general engineering design process would need to change or be rearranged? Can you articulate (write down) some assumptions made in the general engineering design process revealed when considering software design?