The central problem of any design activity is managing fixed and variant points within the constraints of the dependencies. What does this mean exactly? Let me explain with a few examples.
Let us say you want to design a car. Well, you have a several fixed points - the cost of the final car, the speed range, fuel economy, passenger capacity etc. You also have several variant points - the number of passengers in the car, the instantaneous speed of the car, the direction the car is traveling in, etc. There are a number of dependencies that limit your choices - the cost constrains what is possible, the fuel economy can constrain the engines you can use, which limits the range of speeds etc. The basic problem of design is to come up with one or more solutions that will satisfy the fixed and variant point requirements within the constraints imposed by the dependencies.
Let us say you want to design a car. Well, you have a several fixed points - the cost of the final car, the speed range, fuel economy, passenger capacity etc. You also have several variant points - the number of passengers in the car, the instantaneous speed of the car, the direction the car is traveling in, etc. There are a number of dependencies that limit your choices - the cost constrains what is possible, the fuel economy can constrain the engines you can use, which limits the range of speeds etc. The basic problem of design is to come up with one or more solutions that will satisfy the fixed and variant point requirements within the constraints imposed by the dependencies.
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