Design Requirements Management using an Ontological Framework

The specification activity is a critical enabler for collaborative product development through an extended enterprise. Often this activity involves numerous iterations before a shared understanding of the product requirements is achieved since various omissions, ambiguities and assumptions have to be resolved. This paper will present a framework for the electronic-enabling of the requirements founded on ontology-based constructs to provide a shared conceptualisation of the knowledge needed for the specification of a product. The application of ontology is a means to establish the consensual knowledge about the needs of a product and to then apply this shared understanding for its specification.