Methods for evaluating the strength of design dependencies in a product architecture have been widely studied in the literature; however, evaluating the effects of direct and indirect interactions between components/modules remains a challenge. In fact, indirect connections between components/modules are often overlooked in many cases when evaluating design dependencies. Having a more consistent way of defining a product architecture that considers both its direct and indirect connections is important, especially when analyzing redesign complexity and change propagation. In this study, we propose a systematic method to evaluate direct and indirect design dependencies between components in product architectures. Interfaces are classified into six different types based on a thorough review of the literature, and a method for evaluating design dependencies is introduced to estimate the relative importance of interfaces directly from a set of comparable products. Using an electrical circuit analogy, the proposed method can quantify both direct and indirect design dependencies between components within a product architecture. We compare design dependency results for different wireless computer mice to validate the effectiveness of the proposed method. The results show that using the proposed design dependency measure including direct and indirect effects provides more reliable design dependency results.

中文翻译：

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一种评估产品架构中组件之间直接和间接设计依赖关系的方法

评估产品架构中设计依赖性强度的方法已在文献中得到广泛研究。然而，评估组件/模块之间直接和间接交互的影响仍然是一个挑战。事实上，在评估设计相关性时，组件/模块之间的间接连接在许多情况下经常被忽略。以更一致的方式定义产品架构并考虑其直接和间接联系非常重要，尤其是在分析重新设计的复杂性和变更传播时。在这项研究中，我们提出了一种系统的方法来评估产品架构中组件之间的直接和间接设计依赖关系。根据对文献的全面审查，接口分为六种不同类型，并引入了一种评估设计依赖性的方法，以直接从一组可比产品中估计接口的相对重要性。使用电路类比，所提出的方法可以量化产品架构内组件之间的直接和间接设计依赖关系。我们比较了不同无线计算机鼠标的设计依赖性结果，以验证所提出方法的有效性。结果表明，使用包括直接和间接影响的所提出的设计依赖性度量提供了更可靠的设计依赖性结果。所提出的方法可以量化产品架构内组件之间的直接和间接设计依赖关系。我们比较了不同无线计算机鼠标的设计依赖性结果，以验证所提出方法的有效性。结果表明，使用包括直接和间接影响的所提出的设计依赖性度量提供了更可靠的设计依赖性结果。所提出的方法可以量化产品架构内组件之间的直接和间接设计依赖关系。我们比较了不同无线计算机鼠标的设计依赖性结果，以验证所提出方法的有效性。结果表明，使用包括直接和间接影响的所提出的设计依赖性度量提供了更可靠的设计依赖性结果。