Do methods work? On the correlation of method application, effort, and product quality

Despite the prevalence of development approaches in design education, their impact on product resulting products often remains unassessed. This empirical study evaluates (1) the influence of development method application on product concept quality and (2) the effect of effort spent on both. Participants in an undergraduate course were supervised in their development process. The results show a significant positive correlation between effort and method application quality. However, effort spent and method application quality show a moderate yet insignificant effect on product concept quality.     «

Despite the prevalence of development approaches in design education, their impact on product resulting products often remains unassessed. This empirical study evaluates (1) the influence of development method application on product concept quality and (2) the effect of effort spent on both. Participants in an undergraduate course were supervised in their development process. The results show a significant positive correlation between effort and method application quality. However, effort spent...     »

Various approaches to support product development, ranging from German VDI guidelines to agile strategies, share commonalities, e.g., they recommend methods like requirement elicitation or product evaluation strategies. While extensively present in design education, the distinctive effect of development approaches on resulting products often remains unassessed. This paper presents the framework of an empirical study and its results, examining (1) the influence of development method application on product concept quality and (2) the effect of effort spent on both. Participants were supervised in their development process as part of an undergraduate higher education course. Data was assessed via rubrics or self-assessment and investigated using descriptive and inferential statistics. The findings show a significant moderate to strong positive correlation between effort spent and method application quality but no significant effect on product concept quality. However, the introduced framework is a streamlined blueprint for similar studies in educational and entrepreneurial contexts.     «

Various approaches to support product development, ranging from German VDI guidelines to agile strategies, share commonalities, e.g., they recommend methods like requirement elicitation or product evaluation strategies. While extensively present in design education, the distinctive effect of development approaches on resulting products often remains unassessed. This paper presents the framework of an empirical study and its results, examining (1) the influence of development method application o...     »