1 Introduction: Fox (2006) distinguishes between two different (but related) design activities:

Software Product Design	is the process of specifying software product features, capabilities and interfaces to satisfy client needs and desires.
Software Engineering Design	is the process of specifying programs and subsystems, and their constituent parts and workings, to meet software product specifications.

Our current interest is with software product design.

In my opinion, design is a type of problem solving and problem solving has two components -- analysis (i.e., understanding the problem) and resolution (i.e., identifying and evaluating solutions and choosing a particular solution). The analysis portion of product design involves the identification of needs and desires (e.g., "The user needs to..."). The resolution portion of product design involves the specification of requirements (e.g., "The product must..."). I think that this distinction is often overlooked and/or confused.

2 Tasks: For this assignment you must:

1. Categorize the various techniques described in the readings thus far as either being useful for analysis (i.e., identifying needs and desires), resolution (i.e., specifying requirements), or both. (Of course, some of the techniques you have read about are not useful for either. You should simply ignore them.)

For the purposes of this assignment, you must accept my premise that these are distinct activities.

3 Submission: Your thoughts on this topic must be submitted using the normal submission process. (See the relevant course policy.)

4 Visibility: After everyone has submitted their thoughts they will be combined and posted. So, your submission will be visible to everyone involved with the course.