ABSTRACT
Chapter 8 builds on previous chapter’s discussion on defining the need for the system, the steps in defining the requirements, and the assessment of environmental issues surrounding the development of a system. It begins by defining role of system architecting is to establish a creditable range of acceptability within which the system design must reside, and that systems architecting is an art and not a scientific process. It then details that because systems architecting uses insights, vision, intuition, judgment, and feelings or taste as primary means of guiding its activities, the QFD Life-Cycle Modeling methodology has proven to be a tool of choice in creating new and unprecedented products and/or services. The discussion will then turn to the four methods commonly applied through systems architecting to describe the systems support parameters. It then illustrates, by example, that by using a QFD Life cycling Modeling process in each successive development phase, its analytical mapping techniques, helps rationalize parameters for the product and/or service system thus leading to a more robust design and cost-effective system. It then addresses the range of acceptable system parameters produced by systems architecting because they are the basis for all systems’ life-cycle management. And, because the measurability of each parameter is mandatory, QFD, with its ability to compare and cross-correlate those parameters, is the modeling tool of choice that ensures attributes are “built-in,” not “built-on” to the evolving design solution. The chapter concludes with a discussion of how functional supportability alignment is necessary in each stage of the system development process and that QFD again is the tool of choice to ensure that every decision made during the product and/or service system design process considers performance, supportability, and cost of ownership in a balanced manner.
