Function analysis: going forward in value analysis

摘要

Stakeholders are key elements of complex technical projects. They can determine orientation, evolution and success of the project. They can cause uncertainties, changes in objectives and lead the project to failure. In this context, it is always more important to involve them in project decisions. Value Analysis (VA) is a means to introduce management and decision-making in design of complex projects, based on stakeholder needs. A method named Function Analysis aims at identifying and treating functions that the system has to complete. However, this functional approach does not allow some non-functional attributes to be included in the design phases. This is a lack identified by some engineering companies. The proposed paper aims at identifying the challenges encountered by the Stakeholder approaches to translate their needs into nonfunctional dimensions to deal with VA practices to design technical solutions. The research methodology combines a classical bibliographical analysis on VA that led us to show FA limits. Thus, we propose a Stakeholder-based “Non-Functional Analysis” to determine the non-functional attributes to characterize for the design of complex projects, and an industrial company’s feedback practices on a case study. This will allow practitioners to have a systems approach to Value in the context of a VA but it will also allow scientists to compare theory and lack of practice around the identification and characterization of the needs of a set of stakeholders.