ABSTRACT
This chapter describes how the customer needs are translated into attributes that the product must have to satisfy its customers. The requirements on attributes must be developed very carefully and must be based on the customer needs. Developing requirements is one of the major and important steps in designing a new product. The requirements define what the product must achieve. The whole design process should be geared toward meeting the requirements. The attribute management process involves development of requirements for the attributes, cascading the attribute requirements from the product level to its lower levels (i.e., entities such as systems, subsystems, and components), allocating functions to all entities in the product, and developing test procedures to verify that each entity meets its requirements. This chapter describes the attribute management process which typically involves technical specialists who are experts in research, development, and implementation of the attribute requirements. Requirements development process is time-consuming, and most companies use predeveloped systems design standards to ensure that requirements and guidelines developed based on proven past practices and lessons learned are available during this process. Factors affecting this process and advantages and disadvantages of standards are also discussed in this chapter.
