User Manual
The software is named as Design Right and based on the book - Getting Design Right - A Systems Approach written by Peter L. Jackson, who is a professor in Cornell University. The book describes eight steps of the system design, but the book only uses Microsoft Word and Excel tools to complete the function of editing text and calculating data. Because these two are common use software, they bring some inconvenience when writing the document. The software of Design Right is designed to address the deficiencies of such common use software. Not only does it have basic document editing capabilities, but it also adds many automatic features such as input content checking, automatic calculation, automatic chart generation, and more.
Design Right is designed for turning all system design steps described in Getting Design Right - A Systems Approach into a software. Because most of the steps reuse the same data, Design Right software provides data reuse function to improve the efficiency of system design. In addition, Design Right software also provides many automated functions such as: input content checking, automatic calculation, automatic chart generation, automatic numbering, and many others, making it easy for users to use this software.
Design Right is programmed using Python 3.5.2 language. The user interface is built by PyQt 5.8.2. The database uses SQLite. This database is a lightweight database.
Because Design Right uses the cross-platform programming language - Python, the software has corresponding versions for Windows, Linux, and Mac OSX. And for the Windows platform the software has corresponding 32-bit and 64-bit versions.
The book - Getting Design Right - A Systems Approach written by Peter L. Jackson.
The software interface is divided into several areas: the project name, menu bar, step titles, step hints, step content, and button commands.
After the software starts, there are two words – “New Project” on the top left of the window. It is the current project name. When the user saves the project, the text displayed at the top left of the window will be changed to the saved project name.
After the software starts, there is a set of menus at the top of the window. The first item from the left in the menu bar is “File” which includes the following commands: “New”, “Open”, “Save the current section”, “Save the project as”, "Delete current section data", "Export" and "Exit". The "Export" command also includes two commands: "Whole project to Word" and "Requirements to Excel".
The “New” command is used to create a new project. If the current project has been saved, the software will show up a window for the user to choose whether to leave current project. If the user selects “Yes”, the software will return to the first section “Select project” of the first chapter “Definition the project” of the first part “Definitions”. If the user chooses to cancel, the software will keep current project open.
When clicking the “Open” command, the user can find the saved project in the pop-up window, and select one of them then click “Open”. After opening the saved project, the software automatically jumps to the last saved step. At the same time, the path of the folder of the saved project is recorded and set as the current working directory of the software.
When clicking “Save” command, the user saves the contents of the current step. If the current project has never been saved, the software will show up “Save As” window, allowing the user to enter the project name and path to be saved.
When clicking “Save the project as” command, the software will show up “Save As” window for the user to select the name and path for the new project to be saved.
When clicking “Delete current section data” command, the user can delete the saved content data for current step. If the content of the current section has never been saved, the software will show up an error message, suggesting that the current step doesn’t have saved data.
If the current step has saved data, the software will show up a window to remind the user to determine whether to delete the data. If the user selects “Yes”, the current data will be deleted permanently. If the current step has reference content provided to the user, the reference will be displayed after the current saved data is deleted. Otherwise, no content will be displayed in the current step.
The “Export” function is divided into two parts, namely: "Whole project to Word" and "Requirements to Excel".
The user can export the contents of all steps to a Word document. A progress bar will appear to indicate the progress of the export. The exported document includes step titles without content and trimmed step titles.
The function of "Requirements to Excel" is to export all the original requirements to an Excel file. The content of original requirements is saved in the second subsection “Combine all of original requirements” of the second section “Collect and rationalize the system-level requirements” of the second chapter “Translate to technical requirements” of the second part “Measure”.
In the middle of the software window there is a “Language” menu, which includes two languages - English and Chinese for users to choose. When a language is selected, all of menu text, step text, and text on the button commands will be turned to the word in the selected language. At the same time, the check option in the language menu is marked and this language item is turned out to be grey and cannot be selected. And the check option for the other language is unmarked and the other language item becomes black and selectable.
The last menu on the software window is “About”. There are two commands: “GNU General Public License” and “About software”.
When clicking “GNU General Public License” command, a new window will be shown. The entire content of GPL is displaying on the window.
When clicking on the “About software” command, a new window will show up. There are many information displayed on the window that are program language, interface modules and database used to write the software, the current version information, software project website, and the copyright description. At the same time, e-mail address is given so that the user can report any bug when using the software.
The step titles are all steps that users need to complete. They are divided into four levels. The first level is divided into eight parts: “Define”, “Measure”, “Explore”, “Optimize", “Develop”, “Validate”, "Execute" and "Iterate". The second to fourth levels are displayed according to the different situations. If there are no titles displayed on the third and fourth level, the menu bar for step title will not be shown. The titles with bold text in each level means that is the current steps. User can click any step title to jump to any step. When the user clicks on a step title which is not in the bottom level, the current step title under this level will be automatically set to the first step. For example, the user clicks on the step title “Measure” in first level after starting the software, the current steps for second to forth level will automatically set to “Measure the needs”, “Determine measure of effectiveness”, and “Identify the goal of measurement”, which are the first steps in each level.
In addition, each menu bar can be moved, supporting mouse drag and drop.
If the step title is trimmed in the third section “Define and tailor process” of the first chapter “Define the project” of the first part “Define”, the step title will not appear in the menu bar.
The step hints are located under the step titles on the software window and describe what to be done in the current step then remind user to fill in relevant data.
There are four buttons at the bottom of the software window: “Previous”, “Save and Previous”, “Next”, “Save and Next”.
The “Previous” button allows the user to return to the previous step but does not save all data for the current one. If the current step is the first step of the process which is the first section “Selecting project” of the first chapter “Defining the project” of the first part “Define”, when user clicks the “Previous” button, the software will show up a new window to remind the user that the current step is the first one.
The function of “Save and Previous” button is to save the data of current step then return to the previous step, so this button has both the function of saving data for current step and the function of going to previous step.
The “Next” button allows the user to go to the next step without saving all data for the current step. If the current step is last one which is the third section “Affinity Matrix: Designer” of the fourth chapter “Dive and surface: a system view” of the eighth part “Iterate”, when the user clicks the “Next” button, the software will show up a new window to remind the user that the current step is the last one.
The function of the “Save and Next” button is to save the data for current step and go to the next step, so this button has both function of saving data and the function of going to next step.
There is a status bar at the bottom of the software window. When the user uses the function of saving data, the status bar will show words to remind the user that the data is being saved. When the user leaves the current step, the status bar will show words to remind the user that the data is loading before the reference data is displayed for the new step.
In some steps, it is necessary to fill in text, for example, in the first section “Select project” of the first chapter “Defining the project” of the first part “Define”. The user can type in and edit text in the text edit box. Common commands about text edit can be used, such as: cancel, redo, copy, paste, and so on.
There are two steps in the process that need to insert a picture as content. The two steps are: the second section “Sketch concept” of the first chapter “Define the project” of the first part “Define”, and the forth section “Sketch a design concept” of the third chapter “Design the structure” of the fifth part “Develop”.
When there is no saved picture in this step, there is a notice to remind user to double-click the middle position of the window and insert a picture. After the picture is loaded in the software, user can right-click on the picture to select the command in the pop-up menu to remove it. But it only works after inserting the picture to the software.
In the third section “Define and tailor process” of the first chapter “Define the project” of the first part “Definitions”, the user can trim the steps in current process or add it after being trimmed as required. The software uses all steps by default. The user can uncheck the step to delete it then that step will not appear in the current process. When the step is deleted, if it is required to add it back, the user can check the step again. It should be noted that the user needs to save the data for the current step, then the trimming or adding job can be completed. Otherwise, nothing will be changed.
In many steps, user needs to fill content in a table. According to the different requirement of steps, the software will set different rules for the input in a specific area. When the content user types in does not match the rules, the software will show up a window to remind the user to enter the correct content.
In addition, many steps that have input function will automatically fill in some contents for users' reference according to the contents saved by the user in previous steps. Users can modify the reference content and then save it.
Except a few steps, most allows user to add rows or columns to the table and delete rows or columns. The user selects a cell on the table and right clicks the mouse button to see the menu for modifying the table.
In some steps, the table contents need to be numbered, and the software provides the function of automatically adding numbers.
The number in some steps is followed by some other steps. For example, the number in the second subsection “Originate requirements for technical performance measures” of the second section “Collect and rationalize system-level requirements” of the second chapter “Translate to technical requirements” of the second part “Measure” is continued from the number saved in the sixth section “Finalize requirement” of the third chapter “Define functional requirements” of the first part “Define”. In this step if any row is added the number is still automatically numbered according to the previously saved content.
In some steps, the number is composed of two parts. For example, in the second subsection “Develop task in list” of the first section “Develop the task list (work breakdown structure)” of the first chapter “Schedule the project and track progress” of the seventh part “Execute”, the software automatically adds numbers based on the split line between two parts.
In the fifth section “Create a rough-cut bill of material” of the third chapter “Design the structure” of the fifth part "Develop", the leftmost column is used to automatically add numbers. Because the content of this step is hierarchical, the number automatically added still maintains such hierarchy according to the content level.
Many steps need user to type in specific content in specific area, such as numbers, special symbols (√ or ╳, ↑ or ↓). The software provides a function of checking the input content. When the content that the user types in does not meet the requirements, the software will show an error message and remind the user what content is correct.
When the software detects that a special symbol (√ or ╳, ↑ or ↓) is entered incorrectly then an error message will show up to notice the user that content is a mistake. The user can select and copy the correct content from the window and paste it into the corresponding cell.
In the second subsection “Trace derived requirements to originating requirements” of the seventh section “Trace-derived requirements to originating requirements” of the first chapter "Design the behaviour” of the fifth part "Develop”, user needs to fill in the number of original requirements in last column, which comes from the content saved in the third subsection “Review functional requirements” of the first section “Review use cases, context and functional requirements” of the first chapter “Design the behaviour” of the fifth part “Develop”. If the number of original requirements entered by the user is not in the saved content, the software will show up an error window to remind the user to fill in a correct content.
In some steps software provides automatic calculations. For example, in the second subsection “Assign fractional weights and Calculate relative priority” of the third section “Weight the product objectives” of the first chapter “Measure the need” of the second part “Measure”, the user can enters a decimal number in the second row as product weight for each group of project target. All product weights add up to one. If a product target is too large and the total product target is greater than one, the software will show up an error window and ask the user to reenter the number.
The user can enter a decimal number as a weight to the product target between the fourth row and the last second row in the table. The software also checks whether the sum of the rows exceeds 1 or not. If the number is, the software will show up an error message and ask the user to modify it. If the entered decimal weight is correct, the software will automatically look up the group where the current product target is located and multiply the current decimal weight with the group product target decimal weight. The result is placed in the last row of the same column.
In the sixth subsection “Combine all table” of the first section “The house of quality” of the second chapter “Translate to technical requirements” of the second part “Measure”, the software provides the function of automatically calculating the value (%) of imputed importance. The implementation of this function depends on the content saved in the second subsection of “Map engineering characteristics to customer attributes” of the first section “The house of quality” of the second chapter “Translate to technical requirements” of the second part “Measure”. The software will copy the saved content into the table shown in the sixth subsection "Combine all table" and calculate the result based on these contents. If there is no saved content in the second subsection “Map engineering characteristics to customer attributes”, the user can enter it again in the table of the sixth subsection “Combine all table” and the software will automatically perform the calculations. The calculated result is displayed in the estimated value (%) row.
In the fourth section “Prune and expand” of the first chapter “Discover concepts” of the third part “Explore”, the software provides a function of automatically calculating the number of possible alternatives and displaying the result in the step hint. When the user saves the content of this step, the calculated result will be saved too. The method used by the software to calculate the number of alternatives in this step is to multiply all numbers of alternatives of each group.
In the sixth section “Create a rough-cut bill of material” of the third chapter “Design the structure” of the fifth part “Develop”, the software can automatically calculate product cost based on the unit price and quantity entered by the user, and automatically calculate the cost of each subsystem according to the composition of the subsystem. Finally the software adds all costs of each subsystems to obtain the total cost of the system. If the user modifies any value of unit price or quantity, the software will recalculate all costs and display in the corresponding cell.
In the ninth subsection “Prioritize the action “ of the first section “Conduct failure modes and effects analysis” of the second chapter “Manage risk” of the sixth part “Validate”, the software automatically calculates the number of risk priority according to the severity and occurrence of failure user entered.
In third section “Task percent complete” of the first chapter “Schedule the project and track progress” of the seventh part “Execute”, the software uses data of “Duration (Hrs)” saved in previous section, and automatically calculates the other two values according to any value of “Percent Complete (0–100)”, “Work Completed” or “Work Remaining” the user entered. For example: when the user enters value for “Percent Complete (0–100)”, if there is a saved data in the " Duration (Hrs)", the software automatically calculates the number of “Work Completed” and “Work Remaining” then displays the results in the corresponding cells.
In the sixth section “Schedule the project and display Gantt chart” of the first chapter “Schedule the project and track progress” of the seventh part “Execute”, based on the saved contents in the third section “Task percent complete” and the first subsection “Precedence relationship” of the fifth section “Establish task precedence relationships”, the software compares the completion time for all precedence of current task then selects the maximum value to adjust the start time and completion time. After the calculation is completed, the software automatically updates the task priority relationship matrix on the right side of the table for the next calculation.
In the third subsection “Present trace in requirements trace matrix” of seventh section “Trace-derived requirements to originating requirements” of the first chapter “Design the behaviour” of the fifth part “Develop”, according to the content saved in the previous subsection “Trace derived requirements to originating requirements ", the derived requirements are displayed in rows at the left column of the table and the original requirements are listed in the column at the top row, then the derived requirements are traced to the original requirements. If there is a relationship between the derived requirement and original requirement then the corresponding cell is filled with "╳" mark. If there is no row (derived requirement) corresponding to a column (original requirement), the software automatically set the background color of this column to gray for reminding the user to fill in a relationship.
In the fifth subsection “Verification Cross-Reference Matrix (VCRM)” of the second section “Develop the test plan” of the first chapter “Verify requirements” of the fifth part "Validate", based on the content saved in the previous subsection "Map test activities to system requirements”, the software associates the test plan at the far left of the table with the original requirement at the top in this subsection and adds the mark “╳” in the corresponding cell. Similarly, if a column does not have any mark, the software will set the background color of all cells in the column to gray for reminding the user to enter a mark in the column.
In some steps, such as in the first section “Identify functional relationships” of the second chapter “Design the flow and control” of the fifth part “Develop”, when user selects a cell and then adds a row or column or when user selects a cell to delete the row or column, the software automatically detects the modified row or column and adds or deletes a column or row at the corresponding diagonal location.
In some steps, such as in the first section “Identify functional relationships” of the second chapter “Design the flow and control” of the fifth part “Develop”, the contents in the far left column of the table are same as those at the top row except the cell in the upper left corner, so when the user modifies the contents of a cell in the far left column or the contents of a cell at the top row, the software automatically modifies the content of its transposed location.
In some steps, such as in the first section “Identify functional relationships” of the second chapter “Design the flow and control” of the fifth part “Develop”, the background color of all cells on the diagonal position is set to gray except the cell in the upper left corner. When the user adds a row or a column, the software automatically sets the background color of all cells on the diagonal position to gray again.
Before the user enters data, the software provides some reference content according to the contents saved in the previous steps. In some continuous steps, the software will provide the same reference content, such as the reference content in the third section “Organize concept fragments” of the first chapter “Discover concepts” of the third part “Explore”, in fourth section "Prune and expand", and in the first section “Combine concept fragments” of the second chapter "Explore concepts". In order to avoid misunderstanding caused by the same reference content, the software set the background color of the cell in upper left corner of the three steps to different color.
In the ninth subsection “Prioritize the action” of the first section “Conduct failure modes and effects analysis” of the second chapter “Manage risks” of the sixth part “Validate”, when the user enters numbers for “Failure Effect’s Severity” column and “Occurrence Likelihood" column, the software will calculate the result for "Risk Priority" column automatically. According to the content saved in previous subsection “Assess the risks” and the calculated result, the software automatically fills the corresponding content in “Criticality” column.
In the third subsection “Schedule with staggered start times and team member” of the seventh section “Adjust the schedule for team availability” of the first chapter “Schedule the project and track progress” of the seventh part “Execute”, when the user enters a content in "Assigned to team number" column or "Team leader" column, the software can automatically fill a data in the other column. The data automatically filled in comes from the content saved in the previous subsection "Establish team".
In the third subsection “Sort the product objectives” of the third section “Weight the product objectives” of the first chapter “measure the need” of the second part “Measure”, user can right-click on any cell in the table and select the last command "Show pie chart in a new window" in pop-up menu. Then a pie chart is displayed in the new window. The data used in the pie chart comes from the content in the current table, no matter whether the content is saved or not.
In the second subsection “Benchmarking data” of the fourth section “Benchmark competition on measures of effectiveness” of the first chapter “Measure the need” of the second part “Measure”, user can right-click on any cell in the table and select the last command "Show radar chart in a new window" in pop-up menu. Then a radar chart is displayed in the new window. The data used in the radar chart comes from the content in the current table, no matter whether the content is saved or not.
In the first subsection “Insert start time delays” of the seventh section “Adjust the schedule for team availability” of the first chapter “Schedule the project and track progress” of the seventh part “Execute” and the sixth section “Schedule the project and display a Gantt chart”, user can right-click on any cell in the table and select the last command "Show Gantt chart in a new window" in pop-up menu. Then a Gantt chart is displayed in the new window. The data used in the Gantt chart comes from the content in the current table, no matter whether the content is saved or not. The color of time span of the task is using blue by default in Gantt chart.
In the third subsection “Schedule with staggered start times and team member” of the seventh section “Adjust the schedule for team availability” of the first chapter “Schedule the project and track progress” of the seventh part “Execute”, user can right-click on any cell in the table and select the last command "Show Gantt chart in a new window" in pop-up menu. Then a Gantt chart is displayed in the new window. The data used in the Gantt chart comes from the content in the current table, no matter whether the content is saved or not. In the Gantt chart, the task belonged to the same team leader will be displayed in the same color according to the contents in the table. The software supports up to 20 team leaders to display tasks in different colors, and if there are more than 20 team leaders, all tasks uses blue color by default.
