PDR, CDR, DFM and drawing release reviews from your own templates: checklist, package, who was there and a recorded decision.
What makes a review formal
A formal review starts from one of your company's review templates. It has a checklist asked at the review, a package that locks the versions looked at, a list of who was there for which team, and a decision: Approved, Approved with actions, or Not approved, re-review. Findings work exactly as in any review.
Formal design reviews are part of the FMEA and design review add-on. Company setup shows whether your company has it. Without it, formal reviews made before stay to read and print.
Templates
On the web, Company setup → Review templates. Admins and the gate-process owner start one from a starter (such as Critical Design Review) or from nothing: a name, the kind of review, the checklist questions, and the teams that must be there (Quality, Manufacturing…). Choose “Save the template”.
A review keeps the checklist it started with, so changing a template later never changes a review already under way. Nothing is deleted: a retired template can be brought back.
Start one (on the web)
1Open the project, then Reviews, and choose “+ New review”.
2Under “Run it from a template”, pick the template. The title fills itself in.
3Pick the gate it reviews against and the chair.
4If it reviews one piece of work, pick it: it goes into the package at the version it is now.
Formal reviews are started on the web, where the templates are. On iPhone and Android you run them: answer the checklist, fill in who was there, raise findings and record the decision.
The checklist
Answer each question Yes, No or N/A at the review, with a note if it helps. A No raises a Major finding by itself, ready for the chair to sort; you can change its severity in the finding.
Who was there
Choose “Add Someone” and pick the team they were there for. Anyone in Vector Engineer can go on the list, and people from outside the project team then see this review. A supplier or customer who isn't in Vector goes on as “A guest (not in Vector)” with their name and company; guests are on the record only and don't sign in. Each team the template requires must be covered by someone on the list, or recorded as nobody came, with a note.
Someone added by mistake is taken off, not deleted: the record shows they were taken off.
The package
Choose “+ Add to the package” to lock what was looked at: a piece of work at its current version, or an FMEA revision. If the work moves on to a newer version later, the package says so, so everyone can see the review looked at the older one.
The decision
1Answer every checklist question and cover every required team.
2Choose the outcome: Approved, Approved with actions, or Not approved, re-review.
3Add a note. Not approved needs one: say what must change before it's reviewed again.
4Choose “Record the decision and close the review”.
Approved can't be chosen while a Major or Critical finding is still open; Approved with actions needs at least one finding. A review can be reopened and decided again; every decision stays on the record. The review record (“Print or save PDF”) has the outcome, the checklist, who was there, the package and every decision.
Engineer