Abstract

Eliciting precise and comprehensive product requirements from customers is of critical importance for the success of product development. In this thesis, a generic process is proposed for eliciting product requirements by asking questions generated by a linguistic analysis. The linguistic analysis is based on a graphic language called Recursive Object Model (ROM). Two types of questions are asked in the process. One is independent of the domains of product development whereas the other is based on the product domain. A generic template is developed for generating the questions and for determining the sequence of asking those questions. The answers to the questions can be sought from the customers and other partners involved in the product development, designer's own knowledge and experience, text books, dictionary, the internet, and/or the nature itself. A software prototype is developed to support the proposed process. Two case studies are used to illustrate the question generation process.