Requirement volatility metrics as an assessment instrument for design teamperformance prediction

Predicting and assessing student team performance in design projects presen ts a host of challenges. Most involve turning qualitative interpretations i nto quantitative assessments. This challenge is simplified when all student teams are working on the same project. Establishing a relative performance metric based on the top and button? performers simplifies the task. Howeve r, in classes where the projects are diverse and/or sponsored by outside in dustry representatives the challenge is increased. In classes where formali zed requirement documentation exists, requirement volatility (change over t ime) can be used to simplify student team performance assessment, as is-ell as serving as a predictor of future performance on the project. In an anal ysis based on project requirement documents from? the graduate design class at Stanford, ME210, requirement volatility metrics proved to have surprisi ng power as a predictor of student design team performance. Tracked over ti me, the metric predicted of team rank-order performance. This document will summarize a method for volatility measurement and the results of our initi al analysis.