The use cases were classified by analyzing their maturity level concerning smart products. The delta between the current state of the company and the maturity level of the use cases as well as the allocation of addressed challenges form the evaluation criteria.

Within the scope of the requirements analysis, the object of observation needed to be determined and examined. Therefore, the challenges and visions of the companies have been analyzed. An essential help in this phase was a questionnaire and the method “World Café”. Therefore the questions

• • • Which use cases (in approx. 2 years) regarding the focus topic do you see generating new values for you?
    • Who are the target group and stakeholders for these use cases? Are they changing in relation to today?
    • What challenges do you see in the  implementation of these use cases?

were answered in a cooperatively workshop. From the answers, relevant use cases for the different focus topics were derived.