Stop Digging Through Documents for Why You Selected That Part

Why did we choose this voltage regulator? What requirement drove the selection of that capacitor? What were the thermal constraints that led to this power management IC? Electronics engineers often find themselves working like archaeologists, carefully excavating through layers of old design decisions to understand why specific components were chosen. Six months after making these selections, the reasoning behind the choices can be buried under hundreds of other decisions scattered across multiple documents and systems.

The Hidden Cost of Lost Design History

According to our research, 30 to 50 percent of development teams still track requirements using spreadsheets or basic text documents. Others add notes directly onto designs or use task management tools not built for electronics development, like JIRA. This fragmented approach leaves critical component selection criteria buried in various locations – or, worse, preserved only in engineers' memories.

The impact of this scattered documentation emerges at critical moments throughout a product's lifecycle. When market shortages force component changes, engineers must reconstruct their original selection criteria to evaluate alternatives. New team members inheriting designs spend valuable time investigating past decisions rather than performing more meaningful work. During compliance audits, teams scramble to piece together documentation justifying safety-critical component selections, a particular challenge when hardware and software teams work from different requirements sources.

These situations create difficult decisions. Should engineers stick with potentially suboptimal parts? Make changes without fully understanding the original selection criteria? Both options risk introducing problems that could be avoided with better documentation and requirements management. The time spent reconstructing past decisions delays development and increases the risk of compromising the original design intent.

Requirement Documentation Reimagined

Just as archaeologists must meticulously catalog and organize their findings, engineers need efficient ways to manage a large number of requirements across complex designs. Altium 365 Requirements & Systems Portal (RSP) transforms how engineers document and track component decisions. Through the Requirements panel in both Altium Designer and the Altium 365 web interface, teams work with requirements directly within their development environment. Each requirement displays its information, validation settings, and direct links to its instance in the RSP, ensuring everyone works with current information.

Engineers can place requirements as active instances on design documents, creating clear links between specifications and their corresponding implementation. The system can also link requirements to specific design elements, establishing clear traceability between design decisions and their underlying requirements. This requirement placement system works similarly to the familiar comment system in Altium Designer and Altium 365, allowing engineers to associate requirements with points, objects, or defined areas within their designs.

RSP integrates with PCB design projects through the Link Requirements dialog, where teams establish connections between workspace projects and system design blocks. This mapping can be managed through the Altium Designer Requirements panel for direct design interaction or the Altium 365 web interface for broader project management. 

Verification and Task Management

RSP allows teams to define multiple verification steps for critical requirements, ensuring thorough validation of design decisions. Each requirement can have several associated verification activities, and the system tracks the completion status for each step. 

The system can automatically verify certain design parameters – like board layer count or other project-level specifications – against requirements. When violations occur, they're flagged immediately. While automated verification helps catch issues early, engineers maintain control over the validation process and can perform deeper manual validation when needed.

Through verification menu items in both the Requirements panel and Document Requirement dialog, engineers can track the progress of each requirement's validation, including how many verifications have been completed out of the total called for. This facilitates systematic monitoring of the validation process. 

Engineers can create and assign tasks directly from requirements while maintaining the connection to the original requirement. When creating a task, engineers can add detailed descriptions and context to ensure a clear understanding of what needs to be verified or implemented. Task assignees receive notifications and can update the status as they work, maintaining clear communication about requirement implementation through the Comments and Tasks panel.

Real-Time Collaboration in Context

Requirements are available to all users with shared access to the document. By creating a shared space where all stakeholders can contribute, review and refine requirements throughout the product lifecycle, RSP breaks down silos. Instead of maintaining separate email chains or scheduling additional meetings, team members can comment directly on requirements within their design context. Each comment links to the specific requirement or design element being discussed, creating a clear record of decisions and discussions.

The system saves requirements to the workspace independently of the project, keeping requirement data accessible without altering project documents. This independence allows teams to maintain requirement documentation separately from design files while preserving all connections between them.

Practical Implementation and Management

Moving existing component requirements into RSP doesn't mean starting from scratch. The system offers straightforward import capabilities for Excel files through a simple drag-and-drop process, allowing teams to quickly transition from spreadsheet-based systems. Other formats for documentation, like Word, may require additional formatting.

Engineers can also search for particular requirements or track specific instances across documents using the Requirements panel filter. This level of organization becomes particularly valuable when managing multiple instances of the same requirement across different parts of a design. Each requirement instance maintains its own verification status and documentation while preserving its connection to the original specification.

AI-Assisted Documentation

RSP includes ValiAssistant, an AI-powered tool that helps teams document requirements more effectively. Engineers can leverage ValiAssistant to break down high-level component requirements into detailed specifications. For example, when documenting power management requirements, ValiAssistant can help engineers systematically capture voltage specifications, thermal constraints, and other critical parameters. 

While AI provides suggestions and helps identify potential gaps in documentation, engineers maintain complete control over their requirements. They use the tool's insights to enhance rather than replace their expertise. This combination of AI assistance and engineering judgment helps teams create more thorough, consistent documentation of their component selections.

Stop Digging & Start Innovating

When component selections are properly documented and linked to requirements, engineers can stop digging through old decisions and focus on creating new solutions. Because teams can understand and validate past choices, design reviews are much more efficient. And, when supply chain issues force component changes, engineers can quickly evaluate alternatives against the original selection criteria.

The Requirements and Systems Portal transforms component selection from an archaeological expedition into a systematic and proactive process. Engineers can document decisions as they are made, maintain clear records of verification activities, and access this critical information whenever needed – directly within their design environment.

Interested in AI-powered requirements management and systems engineering? Discover Altium 365 RSP today!