4.1 Design Fundamentals
4.1.1 The Design and Development Process – an Introduction
Design and development is the process of turning ideas (the specification) into reality (the product), as shown in Figure 4.1. There are a number of distinct stages in this operation; each one can be analyzed and described as a separate item. Here, we'll concentrate on that identified as "design." But remember that when producing the product all the stages of design and development are highly interactive phases. The idea that design is a once-through activity, never to be repeated, belongs to the world of science fiction. Consequently, any useful design method must be able to handle change easily, simply, and efficiently.
The purpose of this section is to describe the design process in general conceptual terms. However, many people find that abstract descriptions of processes aren't especially helpful. So, the approach used here takes a particular (fictional) auto-engineering...
