ABSTRACT
Intelligent compromise is basic to all practical engineering activity. Engineers exist under constant pressure to be productive. They’re expected to tackle large tasks, often with little guidance. The engineering design process is often depicted as a flowchart. Lower level subsystems are then designed and assembled into subsystems at the next higher level until the system is complete. This approach — analysis followed by synthesis — is advocated as an engineering design approach and clearly applies to the design of large, formal documents. Some design processes can be viewed as hybrid approaches with both top-down and bottom-up elements. Engineering is about what works. Sequential design means that design engineers work first in isolation, only later getting reactions from the other professionals who will eventually have a say about the project. Engineering journals differ in their orientations and formatting requirements. A given publication may require everything to be written in the third person.
