SYSE.22:11 - SoTA and Source Use
Engineering can revise problem formulations and System-family options together, including the Work and Methods used to develop them. Problem archives and portfolios retain material for later choices; comparison and acceptance use their stated bases. When the way of developing a System becomes the obstacle, the same inquiry can extend to its builders.
The table names the sources used here and the contribution and limits of each.
| Source | Retained contribution | Use boundary |
|---|---|---|
| Dorst and Cross (2001), Creativity in the design process: co-evolution of problem–solution | Mutual development of problem and solution spaces in protocol studies of experienced industrial designers. | Use as bounded design-process evidence; establish the current System family and configuration separately. |
| Liker et al. (1996) and Sobek, Ward, and Liker (1999) on set-based concurrent engineering | Communication about design sets, delayed commitment, feasibility, and narrowing in automotive product development. | Transfer the set-based moves only where the receiving profile’s constraints and evidence support them. |
| Castle, Stock, and Gorochowski (2024), Engineering is evolution | Variation, expression, evaluation, selection, exploration, and exploitation as an engineering perspective. | Use the evolutionary analogy as a hypothesis source; ground the current engineering Method and cultural claims separately. |
| Taylor (2018), Evolutionary Innovations and Where to Find Them, and Adams et al. (2019), The MODES Toolbox | Exploratory, expansive, and transformational change and operational measures for open-ended dynamics. | Apply these distinctions only when a possibility-space or open-ended-engineering claim changes the current decision. |
| Zhang et al. (2025), Darwin Gödel Machine | An AI-engineering case retaining a lineage-bearing archive of coding-agent variants for later improvement. | Treat coding benchmarks as one application case; test transfer to physical Systems and causal claims separately. |
Reopen one source-use row when changed evidence alters its practical contribution or boundary.