Investigating And Defining
Investigating And Defining
Here you are going to unpack not only the snapshot of the problem you've seen, but research who else is impacted by the problem, the ethics around the problem and potential solutions, the factors you need to consider in your design, and how you will be able to determine the success of your solution.
There are a range of guiding questions here to prompt your thinking and research.
There are quite a few steps to undertake during this stage of the process.
- Identify, or define, and document a problem (need, opportunity or situation).
- Conduct research, including investigation of factors influencing both the creation and use of the system.
- Develop design ideas.
- Construct criteria to evaluate systems and use of the systems engineering process, using constraints, considerations and parameters of the system.
This is where your divergent thinking comes into play. Even if you have an idea of what you want to make, it might not be the best idea. Each stage is unpacked here, with questions to help guide your research. These are not solely the only questions you can ask, and you do not have to use these questions, or address them specifically in your writing and research—they are simply here to help unpack the broad topic, and give you a direction to search.
Identify, define, and document the problem, need, or opportunity
- What is the problem, need, or opportunity being addressed?
- What situation has created this problem or opportunity?
- Why is it important to address this problem?
- What would a successful solution achieve?
Research and Investigation
Consider stakeholders and users
- Who is affected by this problem?
- Who would use the system or solution?
- Who benefits from the system, and who may be disadvantaged?
- How can the system be designed to meet the needs of different users?
Investigate existing systems and solutions
- What existing systems or solutions already address similar problems?
- What have people tried before?
- What features or approaches work well in existing systems?
- What limitations or weaknesses exist in these systems?
- How can these findings inform design decisions?
Identify required knowledge and skills
- What skills and knowledge do I already have that will assist in developing a solution?
- What new skills or knowledge do I need to acquire?
- What questions need to be researched to better understand the problem and possible solutions?
Factors Influencing Design and Use
Investigate factors influencing the creation and use of the system
- What constraints exist (time, cost, materials, tools, skills)?
- What considerations must be taken into account (safety, ergonomics, sustainability)?
- What parameters define how the system must operate or perform?
- What rules, standards, or safety requirements must be followed?
- What tools, materials, or technologies are available and appropriate?
- How do social, cultural, environmental, and economic factors influence the design and use of the system?
Ethical and Sustainability Considerations
Investigate ethical, social, and environmental impacts
- How might the system impact individuals, communities, or employment?
- What environmental impacts may result from the system across its lifecycle?
- Are there ethical issues or unintended consequences associated with the system?
- How can ethical and sustainable design principles be applied?
Developing Design Ideas
Generate and develop design ideas
- What possible design ideas could address the identified problem or opportunity?
- How can existing ideas or systems be adapted or combined?
- What alternative approaches could be explored?
- How do proposed ideas respond to the identified constraints, considerations, and parameters?
Establishing Evaluation Criteria
Construct criteria to evaluate the system and the systems engineering process
Your criteria must take into account constraints, considerations and parameters of the system.
- What criteria will be used to determine the success of the system?
- How will the system’s performance, safety, reliability, and usability be evaluated?
- How will you assess the contraints, considerations, factors and parameters in your evaluation?
- How will testing and evidence be used to evaluate outcomes?
- To what extent does the system address the original problem, need, or opportunity?
- How will the effectiveness of the systems engineering process be evaluated?
Evaluation
You must constantly be evaluating your own ideas and processes. Evaluation in this stage of the project is reflecting on your ideas, explaining your thought processes. Using the evaluation framework outlined, or another framework of your choosing, you can complete a reflective cycle on your investigation.
- Evaluate if your problem or opportunity clear and sensible
- Evaluate the quality of your research
- Evaluate your design ideas
- Be critical of your work
Ultimately, you are reflecting on if have you made a good effort at this, or if you are just checking off tasks until you can build something. Exploring the problem is a critical underlying process to give scope to your project and provide a solid foundation to base your success on. Your teacher cannot tell you if you've created a decent system or not—only the data from your evaluation can.