What Information can we extract from the Documentation of Student Design Projects?

Product development processes in industry can be enhanced by the application of systematic procedures and adequate methods. The body of knowledge concerning design methodology is growing continuously, but the focus has shifted to some degree. Still, a lot of new methods are being developed, but scientists nowadays are also concerned with a flexible and context-related deployment of procedures and methods. Birkhofer and other designers postulate the “ten commandments” of successful method transfer, the first of them being: “Meet the design situation!”. The supply has to meet the demand, meaning e.g. that methods have to fit to the design situation. This paper focuses on method transfer in academia, which traditionally takes place in lectures and tutorials. The Institute of Product Development at the Technische Universität München (TUM) offers students the possibility to apply and train these theoretical contents in the course of design projects where students deal with design tasks (often originating from an industrial background) and are coached by researchers from the Institute. Students have the possibility to receive academic credit for working on the project. For this purpose, they have to generate a report that is accredited as semester thesis respectively diploma thesis. The report represents a detailed project documentation.     «

Product development processes in industry can be enhanced by the application of systematic procedures and adequate methods. The body of knowledge concerning design methodology is growing continuously, but the focus has shifted to some degree. Still, a lot of new methods are being developed, but scientists nowadays are also concerned with a flexible and context-related deployment of procedures and methods. Birkhofer and other designers postulate the “ten commandments” of successful method transfe...     »