A false start is inevitable? – A consideration of validation in early project phases

The decisive steps are taken in the early stages of development projects: What needs actually exist? Is there a real demand for this? What benefits should a product offer over current solutions, and are these benefits desired? Inadequate validation at the outset can lead to misguided investments, inefficient use of resources, or even the failure of a product. Despite the central importance of early validation, there is often a lack of systematic, practical and cross-domain approaches to thoroughly review requirements and benefits in the early stages of development projects (preliminary development, strategic product planning, etc.). This thesis addresses this issue and aims to take a look at existing validation approaches – regardless of the final product – to serve as a basis for structured requirements validation.

Task:

The aim of this work is to derive and describe tangible activities for requirements validation and to develop a coherent process that supports companies and development teams in validating their project foundations. Current validation and development processes are analysed individually and separately in order to transfer them to requirements validation. Finally, a process is to be created that shows how the activities are linked and what deliverables and results emerge from the individual activities. The end result should be a framework for requirements validation that specifies not only activities but also templates.

Your Profile:

• You are interested in technical challenges (mechanical engineering, industrial engineering, mechatronics, engineering education, etc.)
• You are interested in how product development looks in the early stages of projects
• You enjoy exploring new areas of product development and broadening your horizons

Your benefits:

• Immerse yourself in a new field of research and help shape a topic that is relevant for the future of research and industry.
• Actively support the development of future products, product creation methods and processes.
• Learn scientific working methods from scratch in one-to-one coaching with weekly appointments, predefined milestones and workshops you create and run yourself with experts from industry and research.
• Gain scientific visibility through the opportunity to co-author a publication.

If you are interested or have any questions, please feel free to contact us at  stefan.schwarz∂kit.edu!