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Author:

Rice, Scott E. (1); McKinnon, Samuel A. (1); Sannar, Benjamin C. (1); Mattson, Christopher A. (1); Sorensen, Carl D. (1); Anderson, Michael L. (2)

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Abstract:

Product architecture decisions are made early in the product development process and have far-reaching effects. Unless anticipated through experience or intuition, many of these effects may not be apparent until much later in the development process, making changes to the architecture costly in time, effort, and resources. Many researchers through the years have studied various elements of product architecture and their effects. By aggregating observations on the effects of architecture strategies from a selection of the literature on the topic and storing them in a systematic data set, this information can be recalled in a matrix structure which allows for the identification, comparison and evaluation, and then selection of the most desirable product architecture strategies before expending resources along any development path. This paper introduces this matrix, referred to as the Product Architecture Strategy and Effect (PASE) Matrix, how to construct one, and a demonstration of its use.

Keywords:

Product architecture, Conceptual design, Early design phases, Design theory, Design process