A total quality management-based systems development process

Meaningful user involvement in systems development and an, overall user orientation is critical to the success of any development project. Although traditional systems development methodologies recognize the importance of the user, they provide no formalized methods to translate user qualify requirements into system design specifications. In addition, these methodologies are not rigorous in maintaining a focus on user quality requirements during the later phases of development. Manufacturing organizations with established Total Quality Management (TQM) programs successfully use a technique called Qualify Function Deployment (QFD) to carry the customers' qualify requirements through the design, production, and delivery-processes. QFD has also been used to determine software requirements in systems development. This paper describes a systems development process that integrates QFD more completely into the traditional methodologies. The result is a practical process that focuses the development effort on system quality as defined by the various customer groups. An example case study illustrates the methodology and ifs benefits.