| Abstract: |
It has been widely acknowledged that any product should be developed based oncustomer requirements in order to achieve a high level of system quality and customersatisfaction. Traditionally, traceability analysis provides linkages between requirementsand design items. Although the linkage is necessary, it is not enough to develop softwareproducts with high customer satisfaction. There has been little research on the traceabilityof customer requirements through object-oriented software developments. Tracingcustomer requirements and their impacts through the product development life cycle is nota well-explored area. Once you have identified a set of software requirements, you willusually want to prioritize them. Due to time and budget constraints, it can be difficult toimplement all requirements that have been elicited for a system. Also, softwarerequirements are often implemented in stages, and prioritization can help to determinewhich ones should be implemented first. Many organizations pick the lowest costrequirements to implement first, without regard to importance. Others pick therequirements that are easiest to implement, for example by purchasing a COTS solution.These ad hoc approaches are not likely to achieve the software goals of the organization orthe project. Quality Function Deployment (QFD), which was developed more than 30years ago in Japan, is a methodology that incorporates the voice of the customer into aproduct, and it is an excellent method for assuring that customers receive high qualityproducts. QFD is a process that transforms the desires of the customer at all levels into theimplementation of a product. lnstead of focusing solely on defect prevention andelimination like traditional process improvement initiatives, QFD focuses on bothminimizing the number of defects (customer dissatisfaction) and maximizing value(customer satisfaction). Software quality function deployment (SQFD) is the application ofQFD to software production, which focuses on improving the quality of both the softwaredevelopment process and the product. The ultimate goal is no longer zero-defect software,but rather good software that provides very high customer satisfaction. During the designand development phases of object-oriented software systems, it is helpful to know what themost important design items are in terms of their correlation with the requirements. Adesign item that is impacted by more important requirements deserves more attention thana design item that is impacted by fewer important requirements. Otherwise, if moreresources are given to design items with small impacts on the requirements, it is a waste of limited resources.
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