2026 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

This paper emphasizes sound problem statement development practices for engineering course and capstone projects. The author enforces these practices with the aim of his student teams achieving better project outcomes, also aiding in improved project documentation and its presentation. These practices are employed in a product design and development exercise within a junior/senior level manufacturing engineering elective as well as an interdisciplinary capstone course. These practices include the workflow of developing need statements, addressed by responsive goals and objectives, and constrained by defining specifications. Objective and function tree structures are employed before the assignment of technical, social, and economic constraints, consideration of environmental and safety concerns along with the legal framework including the Intellectual Property (IP) Laws. Software dominant projects employ a slightly different approach with Software Requirements Specifications (SRS) development.

This paper exhibits the details of the problem statement development practices with examples, taken from the author’s experiences spanning over two decades of project work, including the challenges, and the impact of problem statement development leading to best and worst cases. Effective use of engineering codes and standards is also covered as a part of this effort. This paper concludes with the role of design thinking and human- and ego-centric approaches along with design tools like Quality Function Deployment (QFD) and Failure Modes and Effects Analysis (FMAE).