A product lifecycle is the process of merchandise being brought to market, utilized for a certain period of time, and retired or replaced by something new. This is a continual process.
What Are The Key Product Lifecycle Stages?
- Introduction: The product arrives on the market for the first time. A significant amount of promotional and marketing campaigns are launched during this period.
- Growth: Consumers begin searching for and buying the product. If the product is popular, sales increase.
- Maturity: After the merchandise reaches maturity, the sales might decline slightly. This is one of the indications of market saturation, And product prices may begin to fall.
- Decline: Lower demand, newer technology, and consumer behavioral changes may lead to products phasing out.
Life Testing
Life testing determines whether equipment, component, or system performance is thoroughly controlled and stress conditions are within desired specifications. If this is not the case, it must be determined whether the issue stems from a malfunction or other oversight that needs corrective action.
Analyses from research, development, and engineering phases allow individuals to increase their products’ mean life cycle and unit reliability. It must be determined whether the rate of growth is sufficient to meet reliability requirements within a set schedule. Life testing is a necessity because it scientifically and strategically determines whether a redesign was effective while improving the component.
Stress Testing
Stress testing helps ascertain the ability of devices, programs, or networks. These processes determine if a solution retains a specific effectiveness level even under unfavorable conditions. The procedure might entail quantitative tests conducted within a lab, to measure system crashes or error frequency. Alternatively, stress testing may involve qualitative factor evaluation like resistance to DoS (denial of service) attacks. This form of testing is typically conducted at the same time as standard performance testing. During stress testing, product developers intentionally create an adverse environment, which may include:
- Stressing the product beyond normal use.
- Deliberately damaging the product to understand its response.
- Finding the physical limits of components and materials.
- Altering the physical form beyond its original design specifications.
- Using the product in ways not originally intended.
The adverse environment will be gradually worsened until its performance begins to degrade beneath a specific threshold or failure. To gain the most desirable results, individual stressors must be varied one by one while leaving others constant. This enables the product developer to identify specific vulnerabilities.
For instance, pushing materials beyond their physical capabilities can inform an engineer of what might happen to a product should it encounter adverse conditions. Stress testing can sometimes seem tedious or unnecessary but it is a necessity for building successful products.
