Working closely with the customer, a preliminary definition of the product and its functional requirements is outlined. This outline includes proposed architecture and specifications for the basic hardware, inputs/outputs types, functions, displays and interfaces.
In addition to this a pricing scheme for development tests and production units are estimated as well as a preliminary time table. In the event of radically new design principals and functions these are tested in a prototype environment for realization evaluation. The step is concluded with a customer decision to continue to the next step or to set the process on hold.
