Managing design processes: a risk assessment approach

This paper presents a risk assessment strategy for managing the design process. The proposed method intends to provide the foundation for an intelligent system that can assist design engineers and managers of the design process. The IDEF3 methodology is used to describe the concurrent design process. The logical semantics of IDEF3 provide a much more detailed description than traditional project management methods, such as CPM. The IDEF3 model is then used to identify alternative scenarios that result in the successful completion of a design project. Using estimates of the likelihood that a scenario will fail to produce a successful design and the consequences that result, alternative scenarios are evaluated. A working example is provided, and the architecture of an intelligent system for risk assessment is discussed.