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Flip to reveal answersWhat are the five stages of reverse engineering?
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All 4 Flashcards — Reverse engineering
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Question
What are the five stages of reverse engineering?
Answer
Use it first; test it whole; dismantle in order; analyse the parts; infer the decisions. Each ends in recorded data rather than a photograph.
Question
Why use the product before dismantling it?
Answer
The usability baseline — how long a first-time user takes, where they stop, what they try — can only be measured on a working product, and it is gone once it is in pieces.
Question
What repairability data does dismantling produce?
Answer
Minutes to open, the number and type of tools needed, and how many parts were destroyed getting in — comparable numbers that can be set against a rival or a redesign.
Question
Why does the part you cannot explain matter?
Answer
It is usually there for a reason you have not thought of — a standard, a patent route, a manufacturing constraint, an old failure. Removing it blindly reintroduces a solved problem.
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Topic 11.1 hub
Product analysis
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Design Technology exam skills
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