ABSTRACT
The project goal is to find the best design to satisfy the system requirements. The more alternatives considered, then the more likely the best design will be revealed and selected. This chapter describes approaches to generate and then evaluate alternative designs. Once the project team is satisfied they have generated sufficient design alternatives, they need to evaluate those alternatives to decide which one will form the basis for future design work. Evaluation of the design alternatives is done through feasibility analysis that considers various characteristics of the design solution and how well they meet the system requirements. The input to generate and evaluate alternatives is the system requirements and the output is the selected design alternative that will be used in the detailed design phases that follow. After reading this chapter, you should be able to:
• Compare and contrast COTS and proprietary systems. • Describe how the morphological box works to generate ideas. • Describe how to conduct a brainstorming session. • Identify evaluation criteria and create an alternative evaluation matrix. • Describe methods to select the best alternative.
