Classification of product requirements based on product environment

Effective management of product requirements is critical for designers to deliver a quality design solution in a reasonable range of cost and time. The management depends on a well-defined classification and a flexible representation of product requirements. This article proposes two classification criteria in terms of different partitions of product environment based on a formal structure of product requirements. The first criterion classifies the product requirements by partitioning product environment in terms of the product life cycle whereas the second classifies them by partitioning the product environment into natural, built, and human environments. A case study is used to show the feasibility of this approach. This research is the core of a web-based distributed product management system.