• QF applies for ex-post evaluation purposes
• QF applies the ISO/IEC 9126:1991 standard set of quality characteristics
• QF approaches a possible way to match stakeholders’ viewpoints: any new way?
• QF calculation use several tables: it is possible to reduce the number and simplify the procedure?

QFD is a method originated in the late ‘60s in Japan as a means of translating customer requirements (the so-called “Voice of the Customer”) into appropriate technical requirements throughout the development and production of a product. In the ‘80s this method was introduced in North America and since then it has received a widespread diffusion and adoption all over the world, expanding his initial focus on the product to the whole production chain (the “4 phases of QFD”: HoQ (or Design), Parts (or Details), Process, Production).

QFD includes a series of matrixes, which are the tools used to represent data but the most commonly used matrix is the “House of Quality” (HoQ). This matrix approach represents a good communication tool, offering to express a balanced consideration of requirements and providing a mechanism to communicate hidden knowledge through the organisation, but is the means and not the end. The real value is represented by the sharing of communication and decision-making among people of the different functional departments involved in the product development, from Marketing to Product Support. QFD helps development personnel in maintaining the correct focus on most relevant requirements, minimising the misunderstanding of the customer needs. For these reasons, QFD represents an effective communication and quality-planning tool. QFD has traditionally been used in the manufacturing industry with great achievements, leading to remarkable reductions in overall project costs (e.g. 50%), project cycle time (e.g. 33%) and major increases in productivity (e.g. 200%). Main reference for QFD is the QFD Institute. A paper about the selection of proper QFD tool can be downloaded clicking here. A free tool is Easy-QFD by Prof. Dr. Georg Herzwurm.
Some templates and tools MS-Excel based, also for QFD, are available at MathTools.net.
Maintaining the QF basic points, QF²D presents these main improvements:

• simplification and rationalisation of the QF method;
• summarisation of all data in one table;
• flexibility according to a variable number of desiderata features of evaluated products
• usage of histograms to prioritise in a visual way most relevant sub-characteristics and desiderata-features of evaluated products.

• use of the new ISO/IEC 9126:2000 standard series;
• not only a product assessment but also a new development / maintenance is provided, with a circular feedback, covering the whole product lifecycle;
• use of the ISO/IEC 14589-1 evaluation scale in order to express relationships in the HoQ table;
• a greater granularity in the whole product evaluation, at the sub-characteristic level;
• use of a single table to gather data and to visualise results for all participants from the three interest groups (E, S, T)

 

Figure 1- D and I matrices (click to enlarge the images)

Figure 2- A sample D Matrix (click to enlarge the images)

L.Buglione & A.Abran, QF²D: a different way to measure Software Quality, IWSM2000 (10^th International Workshop on Software Measurement), Berlin, Germany, October 4-6, 2000
L.Buglione & A.Abran, QF²D: a different way to measure Software Quality, included in: New Approaches in Software Measurement, 10^th International Workshop on Software Measurement, IWSM 2000, Berlin, Germany, October 4-6, 2000. Proceedings, Dumke R. & Abran A. (Eds.), February 2001, ISBN 3-540-41727-3 (referred in ACM Portal)
L.Buglione & A.Abran, QF²D: Quality Factor through QFD application, Qualita2001 (4^th International Congress on Quality and Reliability), Annecy, France, March 22-23, 2001, ISBN 2-9516453-0-0, pp. 34-39
L.Buglione, N.Kececi & A.Abran, An Integrated Graphical assessment for managing Software Product Quality, Proceedings of the 12 ICSQ (12th International Software Quality Conference: Managing for Software Quality and Service Quality), Ottawa (Canada), October 28-30, 2002

Prasad V.C.S, An Approach to Quality Management at the Early Stages of New Product Development Using Technology Adoption Life-Cycle Concepts, ASQ Software Quality Professional, Vol.7, No.4, pp.27-33
Suryn W., Stambollian A., Dormeux J.C., Luc Bégnoche L., Software Quality Engineering – where to find it in Software Engineering Body of Knowledge (SWEBOK), Proceedings of 14th International Software Quality Management & INSPIRE Conference 2006, Southampton, Hampshire, UK 10-12 April 2006
Alvarez J.C., Panorámica del estado actual del modelo EFQM para la evaluación de la calidad del software, I° Simposio sobre avances en gestión de proyectos y calidad del software (AGPCSW04), Universidad de Salamanca, pp. 156-165, Salamanca (Spain), October 21-23 2004
Deeb S., Contribution méthodologique à la maîtrise conjointe de la qualité d’un produit et de ses processus de production par une modélisation des concepts qualité, Ph.D. Thesis, Université de Nancy H.Poincaré (France), March 2008
Fernandes M.F., Gestão de projectos de software com QFD e ABC, Dissertação de Mestrado em Sistemas de Informação, Universidade do Minho (Portugal), 15/12/2008