Method for selecting and/or producing automation hardware

A method for at least one of selecting and producing automation hardware for at least one of controlling and monitoring a technical process to be automated in accordance with an automation solution, the method comprising:

• developing an electronically readable description of the automation solution, wherein the description of the automation solution is an engineering description which comprises description of at least parts of the technical process and description of at least some components of the automation hardware that is to be selected or produced, which are associated with the technical process;
• analyzing the description of the automation solution using a computer-aided analysis tool;
• supplementing the description of the automation solution through a dialog with a user initiated by the analysis tool, where the dialog relates to individual elements of the components of the automation hardware;
• and
• selecting the respective automation hardware based on the analysis of the description,
• wherein said analyzing comprises automatically determining, by the analysis tool, whether the at least some components provided for selection in the user dialog are suitable for at least one function of an associated part of the technical process and wherein said determining is based on the description of said at least one functions of the associated part of the technical process in the engineering description.