Software Quality Function Deployment

Abstract

is essentially defined as 'fitness for purpose'. The above statement is found in that form, or in a similar paraphrase, in most writings on quality assurance procedures. It begs the questions that we all know what 'fitness' means and that there is a single 'purpose' being targeted. is binary. A product either has it or it does not. There is no such thing as degrees of Another quotation concerning quality, including software quality. We feel that we should be able to endorse the sentiment yet we all know that we must reconcile it with the notion that we only get what we pay for and that, to some extent, quality lies in the eye of the beholder. The practice of Quality Function Deployment (QFD) is concerned with the identification of the various interests of the stakeholders in the development of a product and of the criteria which they would use to define quality. Once these criteria have been agreed upon by the client and the developer, quality shifts from the subjective to the binary. It is the intention of this paper to : • elaborate on the system attributes comprising software quality, • examine the (often mutually conflicting) requirements of the stakeholders in a software product, and • suggest the means whereby the conflict may be resolved and the criteria by which software quality is determined may be measured. Transactions on Information and Communications Technologies vol 8, © 1994 WIT Press, www.witpress.com, ISSN 1743-3517