Method Components - Rationale Revealed

The configuration of systems engineering methods is a challenging task. As a method engineer it is essential to have conceptual constructs capable of reducing the burden of details during method configuration and thus make it possible to create a balance between precision and cost. In this paper we present the method component construct, which seems fruitful for method configuration and meta method development. Furthermore, by introducing an internal and an external view of this construct we can hide details of the method component during configuration work and connect method components to each other through use of interfaces expressing goals realized by the method components. The proposed concept and views can also be used in the process of developing tool-support for method configuration.