Software Engineering

12.2.4 
Structural trade-off analysis
A trade study is any information-gathering exercise where two or more design alter-
natives are analyzed to assess the response of the design to the same operational or 
environmental situation and conditions. The competing design alternatives must be 
evaluated to understand a wide variety of product characteristics and support engi-
neering decision making. A design trade-off will typically involve key performance, 
operational, and sustainment cost factors that affect product suitability, as well as 
the attainment of product sustainment and development project objectives.
To derive a reasonable design solution it is necessary to consider a variety of 
physical design alternatives to satisfy the functional architecture. These design 
alternatives must be analyzed and assessed to determine which alternative provides 
the best compromise of product and project characteristics in terms of satisfying 
stakeholder requirements, needs, and objectives.
The software analysis practice is an integral element of software engineering 
that supports the trade-off analysis and risk assessments associated with software 
requirements analysis, functional analysis and allocation, and design synthesis. 
Software analysis will be discussed in Chapter 14.