SPECIFICATIONSWEEK 16: SESSION 7

LEARNING OUTCOMES

You will:

1. Find out about the different purposes of a specification

2. learn about different forms of specifications

3. use specifications to develop ideas and evaluate products

MYTHS ABOUT SPECIFICATIONS

Once written they can’t be changed

Only one type of specification

No evidence needed to support a specification

Don’t’ start to write it until you have all of the answers

Only one specification is needed

TYPES OF SPECIFICATION

Design

Product development

Technical

Manufacturing

DESIGN/ PERFORMANCE SPECIFICATION

Summary of your research

What it must do/ what it must look like/ other requirements

ACCESS FM

Pugh’s plate

PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT

Agile is a software engineering philosophy devised in the late 1990s. It is based on the assumption that project specifications are likely to change during the product development cycle. Therefore, rather than creating a comprehensive specification upfront and engineering a product to fulfil it, the Agile process treats product development as a series of short iterative loops, lasting only days or weeks.

Design Council website

TECHNICAL SPECIFICATION

Detailed requirements for the product

Function

Link to manufacturing process

Principles/ directives

Safety requirements

MANUFACTURING SPECIFICATION

Details information for production

Stages of the production process

Details of all the characteristics (shape, size, texture, colour, flavour etc) required in the final product.

Lists where standard components can be used.