Overview:
DESIGN ABSTRACTION AND
DESIGN FOR CHANGE

Philip J. Koopman, Jr
Formly of: United Technologies Research Center

Daniel P. Siewiorek
Carnegie Mellon University

Draft, revised August 16, 1994

Abstract

Two vital issues in design are not addressed by current engineering design methodologies: efficient handling of changes, and explicit representation of both behaviors and structures in the same framework. We propose an augmented model of design that couples behavior and structure in a way that supports a variety of strategies for making the design process efficiently responsive to change. This model is based on hierarchically layered pairs of behavior and structure that represent successively higher levels of design abstraction.

Html paper (40K bytes)

Phil Koopman -- koopman@cmu.edu