ANALYSIS OF THE INFORMATION ENVIRONMENT IN THE CONTEXT OF TARGET AND REQUIREMENTS MANAGEMENT IN THE AUTOMOTIVE INDUSTRY

The development of highly complex products requires an increase of knowledge and an optimized flow of information. During the development process information is generated, changed, propagated, and documented. Hence many documents are generated and various systems are established. Yet, during the development process these documents are not adhered to and not consistently updated such as the systems that are not upgraded. The result is a discontinuous information environment, consisting of a variety of redundant and inconsistent information documented in numerous information systems. Within the scope of this paper the analysis of an information environment in the context of target and requirements management performed in the automotive industry is presented, showing the insufficiencies of this environment, the causes of these defects and their impacts and consequences on the development process. Further, this study brings forward new insights regarding the different characters of the information in the workflow and thus giving the possibility to make the information well-defined by introducing so-called distinctive configuration characteristics (DCC). These attributes and their parameter value are presented and discussed in the face of a proposal of restructuring the information consistently regarding a new configuration of the information environment.