Customer Requirements Management: Methodology Selection and Deployment Guide

Abstract

This paper describes strategies for clarifying the product definition early in the development phase by deploying the right mix of key methods and tools. The focus is on customer value chains, project priority, “voice of customer” acquisition, and requirements flow-down. The tools most effective for each development project differ depending on the nature of the product. The authors noticed that one can characterize the products in two axes: morphology (hardware vs. systems) and maturity (established vs. new), and mapped them into four quadrants. We analyzed over a dozen projects in different industries raging from electronics to industrial equipment, and observed how each sector required and utilized the key tools with different priority. The paper is a guide to efficient deployment of the methods and tools and shows that analysis using these tools contributes to the build-up and management of consensus amongst the product development team and increases the rate of project success. The proposed approach provides guidance on which key tools the project should focus on based on the morphology vs. maturity mapping and contribute to project planning and scheduling and resource allocation between the development tollgates. The paper includes two case studies that represent two ends of the spectrum in our characterization quadrants. We conclude by identifying three major areas of research opportunities in product definition: 1) amorphous products that combine hardware, software, and external infrastructure, 2) integration of solution elements of different forms, and 3) global platform design.