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Formulating Engineering Systems Requirements

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Handbook of Engineering Systems Design

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Abstract

Requirements are essential to coordinate purpose-driven activities distributed over several stakeholders. Requirements control the complex dynamics of socio-technical systems consisting of stakeholders and engineering artefacts and are, therefore, crucial for the success of socio-technical projects. Requirements management is challenging, in particular for complex engineering systems. This chapter discusses challenges (1) from a requirement receiver’s perspective, focusing the indeterminacy of expectations; (2) from a requirement providers perspective, focusing on technical complexity; and (3) general challenges from an overall perspective. The chapter provides an overview of approaches to manage and treat requirements and links them to the core activities of requirements management: elicitation, analysis, triage, specification, as well as verification and validation. Typical forms of documentation and formulation rules are presented. Finally, we discuss the importance of quantitative analysis methods. Approaches based on simulation, isoperformance analysis, analytical target cascading, and solution space optimisation are briefly summarised.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Laboratory for Product Development and Lightweight Design, TUM School of Engineering and Design, Technical University of Munich, Munich, Germany

    Markus Zimmermann

  2. Engineering Systems Laboratory, Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, USA

    Olivier de Weck

Authors
  1. Markus Zimmermann
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  2. Olivier de Weck
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Correspondence to Markus Zimmermann .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Technology, Management, and Economics, DTU- Technical University of Denmark, Kongens Lyngby, Denmark

    Anja Maier

  2. Department of Technology, Management, and Economics, DTU- Technical University of Denmark, Kongens Lyngby, Denmark

    Josef Oehmen

  3. Philosophy Department, Delft University of Technology, Delft, Zuid-Holland, The Netherlands

    Pieter E. Vermaas

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Zimmermann, M., de Weck, O. (2023). Formulating Engineering Systems Requirements. In: Maier, A., Oehmen, J., Vermaas, P.E. (eds) Handbook of Engineering Systems Design. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-46054-9_33-2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-46054-9_33-2

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-030-46054-9

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-030-46054-9

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Chapter history

  1. Latest

    Formulating Engineering Systems Requirements
    Published:
    06 January 2023

    DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-46054-9_33-2

  2. Original

    Formulating Engineering Systems Requirements
    Published:
    10 April 2022

    DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-46054-9_33-1

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