Design Specification

Develop a design specification that clearly states the success criteria for the design of a solution

Objective B strand 1

Students should be presented with this strand in one of the following situations.

Students have completed objective A and move on to objective B—they have carried out their research and developed a summary of their findings.

Students are presented a design brief from the teacher, which includes a summary of information with enough detail to write their specifications.

What is a design specification?

A specification is a set of considerations, constraints and requirements for a solution: what the solution must or must not have to be successful. A specification is not a description of the outcome. It should demonstrate that students understand the needs of the problem that they have identified. Every aspect of a specification must be specific, measurable, achievable, realistic and testable (SMART).

The specification should be directly connected to the design brief. Writing a specification can be a difficult job if the design brief is not well researched and written. If a solution or design fails to meet an aspect of the specification, it can be considered that it has not met the criteria for success.

Students will need to refer back to the specification throughout the project, particularly when developing ideas and evaluating the solution.

When writing a specification, students should consider including details addressing the aspects in table 18.

Table demonstrates poor and good examples of design specifications. Remember that these should be specific, measurable, achievable, realistic and testable.

references: occ.ibo.org