ABSTRACT
The numbers and names of product development phases and Design review (DR) meetings vary from one company to the next. Some of the variation stems from differences in organization and policy, some from the type of product and market. There are two types of DR: Formal design review, for which companies have standard policies and procedures. Informal design reviews (IDR), developed and conducted by individual design reviewers. IDR is used only as needed, and its effectiveness can vary greatly. It is a review tool that can be incorporated into any planning or design step as time and resources allow. Phase-specific management divides a product’s life cycle into major phases for managing quality, cost, and delivery factors and may break it down further into incremental steps. The DR team may include specialists and support people from other areas, but it belongs to the design department.
