QFD is a tool, just like a hammer. And like a hammer, it can be put to many uses.
I’ve used QFD on many software projects over the years. Primarily, I’ve used it to rank requirements against business needs. It can be very difficult for an I/S shop in a corporation to direct its efforts squarely against the bottom line. Partners often have their own agendas which can be difficult to discern when viewed through I/S eyes. QFD can help explore the real needs and understand how the requirements play to the corporation’s real needs. Best of all, the partner is involved and is forced to buy in.
An experienced practitioner can exploit the tool, however. I have used it to drive a partner with a beer and pretzels budget but a champagne and caviar appetite into an appropriate solution for his needs. Rather than battling over the right answer, he was forced into choosing the right answer for himself.
In a more typical DFSS context, QFD allows you to quantify some measures which can later be used in the Pugh matrix to help evaluate different design concepts. In my experience, this does work better if you can go back to the old style functional decomposition. That may be a lost art in your shop.
While much of what is written about QFD tends to be directed toward physical product designs, after you have used it a bit, if feels like a made for I/T sort of tool.
–McD
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