Methods and Tools for Requirements Engineering of Made-to-Order Mechanical Products

Abstract

This paper reviews tools and methods for requirements engineering and assesses their applicability to requirements management of a made-to-order mechanical product. One method, the use of a formal specification modeling language, is used to model the evolving specification of a mechanical system during embodiment and detail design. The model of the product specification is then evaluated against the following criteria: verifiability; correctness; understandability; consistency; ability to represent different levels of detail; modifiability; traceability; ambiguity; and annotability. The suitability of using specification languages to represent mechanical product specifications is discussed.