Some topics on a model for the design process

Design support based on a model for the design process is described. The starting point in the design process is the problem specification and requirement analysis. The definition of the design task with its internal structure is presented. The author suggests that there are six kinds of decisions supporting a design process: operational advising, decision alternative generation, design focus selection, design decomposition, design critique and requirements propagation. On the basis of the design task definition, the conceptual model of the design process is presented. Based on the states of design tasks (unexplored, in-progress, completed, suspended, and delayed), the execution of the design process is presented as the traversing of the extended design AND/OR decision tree derived from the structure of the design tasks. The intelligent decision support during the execution of the design tasks is presented. The concept is illustrated by a simple example from an electronic systems application domain