COMPIT 2010 in Gubbio - TUHH

• Value delivery chain
o Identify processes that have great potential for increased productivity (drawing,
analyses)
o Forward integration (interfacing/integration to structural design, piping, production)
• Work force profile
o Activity distribution of work force (difficult to assess as staff are likely to hide true
figures)
o Staff qualification profile, training requirements, motivation, morale
• Product and service spectrum (current and planned)
o e.g. requirement for analysis of: propeller flow; seakeeping; aerodynamics; fire; etc.
o Standardisation of documents or services
• Current IT environment
3.1.2. Defining “Where do we want to go?”
The requirements for the CAD or simulation software system should be grouped in categories, using,
for example the MoSCoW system:
M MUST have.
S SHOULD have if at all possible.
C COULD have if it does not affect anything else.
W WON'T have this time but WOULD like in the future.
Any system not fulfilling the “Must have” requirements can be automatically removed from the list;
the remaining alternatives can be classified by how many of the other requirements they meet.
The requirements themselves can address different aspects:
• Functional requirements
o Ability to handle industry specific geometries (free form shapes for ships)
o Supported technical features such as analysis techniques
o Supported import / export data formats
o Potential for future extension (modularised software; not hardware limited; open system
that allows custom integration of in-house or third-party software)
• System requirements:
o System architecture: If the system supports parallel processing, then powerful multinode
computers can be built at quite low cost and this can provide a very effective
way of increasing the processing capabilities of the system (by adding more nodes,
rather than replacing the hardware).
o Scalability
o Operating system (this is likely to depend on the system architecture)
o Additional software (such as pre- and post-processing tools).
• Quantitative requirements:
o These requirements concern the amount of data to be handled by the system: processing
power, short-term storage, long-term storage and working memory should all be
assessed.
o Likely requirement due to anticipated future expansion of the system should be assessed.
This can be very challenging since it can be very hard to estimate how software
and hardware will develop except in the quite short-term.
• Strategic requirements: CAD investments often bind a company to their selected product for
more than one decade! Disregard of strategic aspects is one of the most frequent reasons for
fatal decisions in IT investments. It is crucial to contemplate the following points:
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