A design review is a milestone within a
product development process whereby a
design
A design is a plan or specification for the construction of an object or system or for the implementation of an activity or process or the result of that plan or specification in the form of a prototype, product, or process. The verb ''to design'' ...
is evaluated against its
requirements
In product development and process optimization, a requirement is a singular documented physical or functional need that a particular design, product or process aims to satisfy. It is commonly used in a formal sense in engineering design, inclu ...
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 Design controls designates the application of a formal methodology to the conduct of product development activities.
It is often mandatory (by regulation) to implement such practice when designing and developing products within regulated industrie ...
, 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 assur ...
.
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 a plan or specification for the construction of an object or system or for the implementation of an activity or process or the result of that plan or specification in the form of a prototype, product, or process. The verb ''to design'' ...
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 processes recognise that the cost of correcting a fault increases as it progresses through the
development process
Development or developing may refer to:
Arts
*Development hell, when a project is stuck in development
* Filmmaking, development phase, including finance and budgeting
*Development (music), the process thematic material is reshaped
* Photograp ...
. 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 sof ...
, ease of
localisation, environmental) or during various stages of the design process.
See also
*
Design review (U.S. government)
In the United States military integrated acquisition lifecycle the Technical section has multiple acquisition "Technical Reviews". Technical reviews and audits assist the acquisition and the number and types are tailored to the acquisition. Over ...
*
Hazard and operability study
References
Engineering concepts
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