Complexity Metrics for Design Processes

Abstract

This section lays out available complexity metrics in order to assess the structure of engineering design processes to discover indications about their behavior. These metrics receive, as an input, a structural model (preferably based on the Structural Process Architecture, as shown in the previous chapter, although any other graph or dependency model can be used) of only the entities and relationships of the system. The metrics are, therefore, suited to work with qualitative models, as commonly found in process models set up from “boxes and arrows”. These metrics and their description are referred to as the Structural Measurement System (SMS).