Structured workflow approach to support evolvability

This work aims at explicitly modelling key concepts of the evolution process to support the product development process of complex multi-disciplinary systems such as Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) systems. The key concepts span over different domains of the product development process: product use (workflow models), system functionality (Function–Behaviour–State modelling), component interfaces (Design Structure Matrix and Interface model) and the organisational view (stakeholder analysis). By having an explicit view on these domains, effectiveness of change management is improved by showing how changes in one domain propagate to other domains. The focus on simplicity of the models and human understandable language is essential to ensure understanding by all (non-engineering) stakeholders such as nurses and physicians from the start of the evolution process. From these models a modularisation of the system can be extracted. The modularisation separates closely connected elements and thereby reduces the risk of unknown future changes having a high impact. The method is illustrated using a real industrial example, namely, the development of a product that facilitates intra-operative MRI.