Design methodology management is an emerging technology in the world of electrical computer aided design. It has spawned considerable research over the past decade, and a firm belief in many people's minds that it is the key to significant productivity enhancements in the next. How close are we to seeing this belief fulfilled? In this paper, we define the concepts that are important to design methodology management systems and explain how these systems relate to CAD frameworks. We then examine and characterize 23 notable design methodology management systems of the last 15 years in order to understand the state of the art. Finally, we describe and analyze the trends we have seen in these systems and propose where this technology is headed. >