Hardware Reference
In-Depth Information
SW development). However, there is the need for coordination during these activities.
Third, there are integrated activities where information from all processes must be
accessible and integrated into common information. Information assets that will be
flowed from a sub-system level to system level are final deliverables and refined
requirements/design.
Tooling
design
allowed
Component
design
prel. app.
HW lifecycle
Concept
defined
Component
approved
Started
Common
Integrated
HW dev
Independent
Requirements
definition
Define
functionality
Define
system arch
System
integration
System
verification
System
release
SW dev
Concept
defined
Software
integrated
Software
approved
SW design
prel. app.
SW lifecycle
Started
System
lifecycle
System
design
System
integrated
System
tested
System
released
Started
Defined
Fig. 1.
System development process and lifecycles (adapted based on [14])
The development of multidisciplinary products is supported with various product in-
formation management systems, such as Requirements Management tools, ALM tools,
PDM (Product Data Management) tools, Document Management tools, etc. The need for
integration of various product information management systems has been discussed, e.g.
in [14, 18]. One challenge with these tool domains is that often their functionality and
managed information overlaps [14, 18]. The same data is duplicated in various applica-
tions that complicate the traceability and maintenance of data. Keeping the data consis-
tent would require integrations between existing systems. The technical integration of
these tools in itself is not sufficient but also adequate understanding of the development
processes and their interrelations in the particular case is required [19]. Therefore, the
management of product related data requires a holistic viewpoint, i.e. lifecycle manage-
ment that contributes to better consistency of product data.
3 Research Approach
This section introduces the industrial context and research process.
3.1 Industrial Context
The case company operates in the field of the automation industry. The company
operates in a multi-site environment. Therefore, the challenges of the global develop-
