QFD applied to software development - The 2005 International MultiConference in Computer Science & Computer Engineering - Las Vegas Nevada, USA, June 27-30, 2005

Since the initial development in Japan, in the late 1960's and early 1970's, the industries had used QFD - Quality Function Deployment a tool of TQM - Total Quality Management, to products manufacturing. In 1980's this method was rapidly spread through out the USA and several countries in Europe, Australia and Brazil. The fundamental aim of this technique is to obtain and understand the needs of the customers and transform them into a detailed specification that is used along the process of the product manufacturing. The idea of using QFD technique as it is, to software development is not easy or convenient, since there are differences between product manufacturing and software development. However, it seems like a good procedure, to understand the concepts of QFD and apply them to software development where appropriate, in conjunction with other strategies such as CMM - Capability Maturity Model. This paper is an attempt to describe how to implement quality into software using the available tools. At the end of this paper a real case experience in a medium size automotive industry is presented.