Design process tailoring: A review and perspective on the literature

Abstract

The definition and formalization of engineering design processes has been identified as a best practice in empirical studies, and process reference models in literature are plentiful. However, since no two engineering design projects or even organizations are the same, flexible processes and their adaption and tailoring are a necessity. This results in corresponding activities to be carried out by process and project managers. Hence the question arises what approaches do exist in order to support individuals in carrying out these tasks? In this chapter, a literature review has been carried out in order to identify existing approaches, which have consequently been categorized. Since the investigated approaches stem mainly from the domain of software development, we propose the need and opportunity to transfer these approaches to interdisciplinary product development.