Investigation of the exogenous factors affecting the design analysis process

Computer-based design analysis activities are an essential part of most product development projects in industry. An effective integration of the analysis activity into the product development process is therefore very valuable. The current work shows that design analysis activities are constrained and influenced by many elements from their working environment. Factors exogenous to the design analysis activity, but that have an important effect on it, are identified and grouped along their levels of influence on the activity: some appear within the development project, some are at the enterprise level, and some are outside the sphere of the enterprise. The proposed classification has the advantage of indicating what leverage a stakeholder can have upon such factors: the farther from the analysis activity context, the more difficult it is to act upon them. Furthermore, a guideline presents how to deal with these factors during design analysis planning and execution within a product development project and in alternative enterprise configurations. Being aware of those factors should prevent fastidious iterations resulting from a poorly planned and organised design analysis task.