Midway through the Concept Development stage, a concept is selected that is believed to meet the design needs. At this point, the Concept Review is held to show how the concept is a good choice. However, the selection of the concept is not the end of Concept Development. As described on page 67 of Product Development, Concept Development is only complete when a high-quality, verified system architecture has been completed.

The Concept Review takes place soon after you have received opportunity development approval. In most cases, it will be completed by the middle of October. The specific date for your review will be scheduled by your pod instructor. No written deliverables are required for the Concept Review. During the review, the team makes a presentation of the selected concept, the prototype(s) used to show that the concept works well, and an explanation of how the selected concept is best at meeting the product requirements. The reviewers will evaluate the selected concept and recommend suggested and required changes in the concept.

You should aim for a presentation time of 10 minutes for the Concept Review. Your presentation should answer the questions below. While no written materials are required for the review, it will be in your best interest to be working on the listed artifacts in preparation for the review.

The artifacts and the review should answer the following questions. Satisfactory answers to these questions constitute the minimum requirements for Concept review approval.

1. What is the selected concept?
   1. Primary Artifacts:
      • Written and visual definition of concept, as described on page 71 of Product Development,
   2. Supporting Artifacts will likely include some or all of the following:
      • A list of the concepts considered see page 98 of Product Development), preferably including structure and/or organization showing how concepts are related
      • Evaluation of concept set Novelty, Variety, Quantity, and Quality
2. How have you proven that your concept is best and meets the key success measures and other requirements?
   1. Primary Artifacts should include the following:
      • Concept selection report, including screening and/or scoring matrices, with rationale for concept ratings of individual concepts and clear explanation of why the selected concept is the preferred concept
      • Concept testing reports describing tests on prototypes and models whose results demonstrate that a final design based on your concept is likely to achieve the target values
   2. Supporting Artifacts will likely include the following, plus any other necessary artifacts:
      • Definitions of models and/or prototypes used in testing
      • Test procedures used to obtain the results listed above
      • Computer files used in the testing work

No written documents are submitted in advance for the Concept Review. You will need to make a presentation that covers the information in the primary artifacts listed above. You may wish to bring copies of the artifacts or to provide links to the artifacts that the reviewers can use during the review if more details are necessary than are provided in the presentation.

All of the artifacts listed here are expected to be present in the Architecture Review, so preparing them now gets you a good head start.

The Concept Review has the following mechanics:

1. The team answers the review questions and creates artifacts containing the answers. The artifacts are not submitted in advance, but copies or links are provided at the review.
2. At the review, the team delivers a 10-minute presentation that addresses the review questions. The presentation will likely contain excerpts from the artifacts that were prepared.
3. The team and the reviewers will discuss the concept that was presented. Suggestions for changes in the concept will be given.
4. The reviewers will decide on and communicate the outcome of the review.There are three possible outcomes:
   • Concept approval is granted unconditionally. When approval is granted, the team proceeds to add detail and develop the concept into a system architecture.
   • Concept approval is conditionally granted, subject to the team making some required revisions in the artifacts. The team must clear the revisions with their pod instructor before approval is granted. After getting approval, the team proceeds to add detail and develop the concept into a system architecture.
   • Concept approval is denied. The team will need to improve the concept, schedule a new review, and return to step 2.

Artifacts created as part of the preparation for the Concept Review should be formatted according to the instructions in Artifact Formatting.

If your sponsor requires a bound printed report, follow the additional instructions in Formatting Printed Reports.