Product development process reference models: new possibilities for representation

Author(s)

Carolina Román Amigo

• Document type: Master's Dissertation
• Press: São Carlos.
• Institution: Universidade de São Paulo (USP). Escola de Engenharia de São Carlos (EESC/SBD)
• Defense date: 2013-06-20

Examining board members

Henrique Rozenfeld; Daniel Capaldo Amaral; Roquemar de Lima Baldam

• Advisor: Henrique Rozenfeld

Abstract

There is a consensus in the literature that adherence to a reference model makes product development (PD) process managing more efficient, because reference models support the representation, understanding, design and improvement of these processes. Although a variety of modeling methods are available, they are still not intensively used by the practical community. One of the possible reasons for this problem is the difficulty offered to process visualization and comprehension by views elaborated though these modeling methods. There is still a gap on the literature with respect to studies on PD reference models that consider the user perspective. This research aims to propose new views for PD reference models, which can be more effective, efficient and satisfactory than the existing ones regarding the purposes of PD reference models users. For this end, two reference models prototypes were developed, one of them with new analogic views, and another with existing activity network-based views. These prototypes were tested for usability. The results show that the proposed views were more effective, efficient and satisfactory than the traditional ones for most analyzed purposes. The conclusion is that analogic views can be more suitable to satisfy the purposes of users of PD reference models than activity network-based views. (AU)

• FAPESP's process: 11/15996-9 - Reference models for new product development process: new possibilities for representation.
• Grantee: Carolina Román Amigo
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Master