Performance management at design actvity level

The overriding aim of much of the engineering design research is to improve the performance of the design process, and consequently the product development process. Much has been written within the product development literature on the performance of the product development process. This work has been largely focused on the analysis of performance at the project or program level. The ability to relate the different research and draw generic lessons from the results has been stifled by the lack of consistency on the meaning of performance both at a generic level [2] and more specifically in design/development [3]. For example, although product and process performance have been distinguished within existing work we are unclear on how these relate or may be managed effectively. This paper begins with a brief review of research in the area of performance, with particular emphasis on design/product development, highlighting the main weaknesses in work to date. A fundamental and generic model of performance, related to knowledge based activities in design, is then presented. The model describes performance in terms of its key elements, efficiency and effectiveness, and provides a basis for modelling performance across different process levels, i.e. project, program, etc.