EC-14.4 Prototyping, Verification and the Design Review
You can build a prototype that answers one question, write a verification plan that maps each requirement to a test, distinguish verification from validation, and take part in a design review as either author or reviewer.
Before:EC-13. Laboratory Practice, in SequenceUnlocks:EC-15. Capstone, in Two StagesEC-17. Industry and Research Experience
A prototype that tries to be a small version of the whole product answers nothing. This topic argues for prototypes with a single question each, and then attaches the verification plan that turns requirements into evidence. The design review is included because it is the one professional practice most students never experience before they are expected to survive one.
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A prototype answers one question
Can this sensor resolve what we need? Will this run for a day on a battery? A prototype built to answer one question is quick and conclusive, and one built to be a small product answers nothing clearly.
NPTEL: Design Thinking, a Primer (IIT Madras) · CourseThe verification plan, one row per requirement
Each requirement, the test that demonstrates it, and the evidence the test produces. Writing it while the requirements are fresh means the tests exist before the schedule makes them unwelcome.
NPTEL: Product Design and Innovation (IIT Guwahati) · CourseVerification against validation
Verification asks whether you built the thing right, against the requirements. Validation asks whether the requirements were the right ones. A design can pass the first completely and fail the second.
NPTEL: Product Design and Innovation (IIT Guwahati) · CourseTesting the edges rather than the middle
A design that works at nominal conditions may fail at the extremes of temperature, supply voltage or input range. The interesting tests are at the boundaries and a little outside them.
NPTEL: Product Design and Innovation (IIT Guwahati) · CourseThe design review, and what it is for
A review exists to find problems while they are cheap, not to approve work already done. Reviewers who find nothing have usually not been given enough time or enough of the design.
NPTEL: Project Management (IIT Kanpur) · CourseBeing reviewed, and being a reviewer
As author, present the decisions and their reasons rather than defending the outcome. As reviewer, ask about assumptions and failure cases rather than about style, and record what was raised.
NPTEL: Technical Communication for Engineers (IIT Roorkee) · Course
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- FreeNPTEL / IIT Guwahati · CourseNPTEL: Product Design and Innovation (IIT Guwahati)
- FreeNPTEL / IIT Madras · CourseNPTEL: Design Thinking, a Primer (IIT Madras)
- FreeNPTEL / IIT Kanpur · CourseNPTEL: Project Management (IIT Kanpur)
- FreeNPTEL / IIT Roorkee · CourseNPTEL: Technical Communication for Engineers (IIT Roorkee)
Links last checked 3 Sept 2026.
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