Eliciting Requirements - what are basic requirements for Quality Function Deployment ? PART 2

Quality function deployment defines requirements in a way that maximizes the customer satisfaction. Quality function deployment is used to translate customer requirements to engineering specifications. It is a link between customers, design engineers, competitors and manufacturing. QFD is important as it gives importance to the customer and put these values in engineering process. There is a proper time to use quality function deployment. It is used in early phases of design. It can also be used as a planning tool as important areas are identified.

Quality function deployment contains four phases:
- product planning
- product design
- process planning
- production planning

The benefits of QFD includes better understanding of customer needs, reduces iterations in design and enhancing teamwork. There are three types of requirements that are defined by QFD:
- Normal requirements are a mirror of objectives that are stated for a product during meetings with the customer. Normal requirements include graphical displays,specific system levels.
- Expected requirements are requirements that are fundamental and customer does not explicitly state them but their absence will create a significant dissatisfaction. These include ease of software installation and human/machine interaction etc.
- Exciting requirements are the requirements that do not fall within customer's expectations but are very satisfying when they are present.