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3.5. DESIGN GUIDELINES

The author believes that some design guidelines exist:

  • Spend more up-front effort defining and exploring the problem space: determine its scope, requirements, constraints, and resources
  • Identify customer groups and their needs, values, and resources
  • Define the artifact in terms of functionality, service, quality, materials, and cost
  • Apply domain knowledge in the form of models and components, as well as best practice design prototypes and expertise
  • Apply domain knowledge to transform design problems into configuration problems
  • First design the ideal artifact, then apply constraints
  • If problem is under-specified, apply more domain knowledge or gather more detailed requirements and constraints
  • If problem is over-specified, redefine the problem or delete requirements or constraints

Initially, designers must strive to create the most desireable, optimal, ideal artifact possible, without considering constraints. Later, constraints can be identified and applied, and compromises can and will be made. By establishing the vision of the ideal design, developers can often develop a multiple-release, long-range plan to reach the ultimate goal.

Another design tenet is to try to convert ill-structured design problems into structured configuration problems with standardized components. By creating domain models and applying knowledge from reengineering, design, and the domain, very difficult design problems can be reduced to manageable problems in component configuration. Knowledge can consist of component descriptions of functionality and constraints, as well as libraries of successful design cases.

Generic Design Process
 
Procedure Elements Players
 
1 Define Problem Goals Customers
  Define Customers Needs Market Segments
  Identify Needs/Values Values Stakeholders
  Prioritize Needs Budget Funders
  Determine Budget   Strategists
 
2 Analyze Problem Specifications Analysts
  Decompose Needs Requirements Product/Service
  Determine Reqts. Constraints Process
  Determine Constraints Resources Technology
  Tradeoff Reqts.   Financial
 
3 Develop Design Design Description Designers
  Select Prototypes Features Product/Service
  Generate Features Components Process
  Describe Design Alts. Prototype Technology
  Negotiate Reqts.   Integration
 
4 Build Artifact Design Artifact Builders
  Build/Test Compnts. Product Developers
  Build/Test Artifact Service Testers
  Optimize Design Process Implementers
  Tradeoff Reqts. & Constraints Infrastructure Assessors

FIGURE 3 A generic design model.

3.6. GENERIC DESIGN MODEL

A generic design model is proposed that describes the procedural steps, the design elements, and the participants that influence and enable the resulting design artifact. Although shown as a linear process, in practice this model would really look more like a spiral process, with feedback between process steps, and iteratively deepening and repeating the cycle until an optimal or acceptable design artifact was built.

4. REENGINEERING DESIGN

One of the most significant aspect of reengineering, the design, is too often given little thought and is performed quite poorly due to a lack of design knowledge. In good reengineering design practice, the same design principles apply -- imagine an ideal future state for the redesigned business system components and elements that best meets the needs and purposes of the defined customers. Customer and organizational needs are then translated into requirements and constraints. Next, design alternatives are created that best satisfy the requirements and constraints.

4.1. REENGINEERING DESIGN PROCESS

A reengineering design process can be described that closely follows the generic design model presented above. A design order exists among components that follows the business system flow in reverse. First, based on the strategy, the business should attempt to redefine, reshape, and/or influence its environment in terms of markets, customer needs, industry standards and certification, government regulation, and other sociopolitical forces. For example, customers often are willing to perform services in exchange for convenience or cost savings. Second, products and services are redesigned in accordance with prioritized customer and organizational needs. Next, processes are designed that produce products and services. Finally, the various elements of the infrastructure that enable the processes are reengineered.

The enhanced goal of reengineering is to radically redesign entire business systems in order to create value-added products and services that delight the customer, as well as to ensure the success and growth of the enterprise and personal careers. During the assess current state phase, value gaps from inferior products and services are determined from market and product analyses, sales data, and customer feedback. Performance gaps from poor process execution are identified from internal measures of cost, quality, and cycle time, as well as industry best practices. Finally, customer and organizational needs are identified and prioritized from the gap analyses.

Next, a feasibility study for each business system component is performed to determine the difficulty of reaching the ideal future state. Components are analyzed and ranked by the size of their gaps and the feasibility of reaching the future state. Designers should prioritize for immediate redesign those components with large gaps in which it is also relatively easy to reach the future state. This approach ensures the greatest results for the resources expended.


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