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The total design process is of interest to us in this section. How does it begin? Does the engineer simply sit down at his/her desk with a blank sheet of paper? And, as he/she jots down some ideas, what happens next? What factors infuence or control the decisions which have to be made? Finally, then, how does this design process end?
This complete process, from start to finish, is often outlined as in Figure 1-1.
The process begins with a recognition of a need and a decision to do something about it. After many iterations, the process ends with the presentation of the plans for satisfying the need. In the next several sections we shall examine these steps in the design process in detail.