There are a lot of reasons why software fails, but one of the many reasons is that failure in design. So the real question is how to design a product with the engineering design in mind. So what is engineering design anyway, and why you should care? Engineering design consists of two words: Engineering and Design. I will explain with a simple concept. In order to have the same vision, we will define the two words in a separated way.
Design: is a field of doing and making, creating great products and services that fit humans needs, that delight and inform.
Engineering: is a process to propose a solution based on the application of science and mathematics that useful for people.
Based on the definition engineering design is a way to create a product by following engineering discipline. it has several characteristics such as
- having multiple acceptable solutions based on the realistic constraint that might come from multiple disciplines
- the multiple constraints can be from business, technical issues, customers, and social values
- adopting a well-known standard, method, process, or acceptable framework
with the characteristics, we have 7 generic steps which are:
- Identify the need and constraints
- Research and understand the problems
- Assess possible solution
- Select the promise solution
- Build a prototype/solution
- Test and evaluate the solution
- Improve/redesign the solution
In the reality, the steps are applied in iterative and incremental ways. the generic steps become a fundamental process in engineering education like a capstone project. In the next post, I will show you how to apply the engineering design for the capstone project in software engineering discipline.
happy weekend.