A review of how a Quality Functional Deployment (QFD) tool can be used to prioritize items, such as project opportunities.

1. Section & Lesson #:
Pre-Requisite Lessons:
Complex Tools + Clear Teaching = Powerful Results
Project Prioritization Using a QFD
Introduction – Lesson 6
A review of how a Quality Functional Deployment (QFD) tool can be used to
prioritize items, such as project opportunities.
None
Copyright © 2011-2019 by Matthew J. Hansen. All Rights Reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means
(electronic, mechanical, photographic, photocopying, recording or otherwise) without prior permission in writing by the author and/or publisher.

2. o What is a “Quality Functional Deployment” Tool (QFD)?
• A QFD (a.k.a., “House of Quality”) is a tool that helps objectively prioritize subjective items.
• A QFD helps a team of people prioritize items across their most critical prioritization factors.
 Though a QFD can get very complex, we’ll focus on its most simple and common application.
• A QFD helps unify the team by resolving potential conflicts over competing initiatives.
• A QFD for prioritizing projects can be built by a team of experts during a meeting (2 to 4 hours).
o What are the key elements for a QFD?
• List of Parameters (What items need to be prioritized?)
 Projects, customer requirements, opportunities, tasks, etc.
• Prioritization Factors (How do we determine the priority?)
 The factors or measurements that are most critical for the group that owns the above parameters.
– Examples include revenue/cost impact, improving customer satisfaction, level of risk, timeliness, etc.
• Impact Scores (How do we rank each parameter by each priority?)
 The level of high/medium/low impact the team believes each factor has on each parameter.
o What does the overall process look like for building this QFD?
QFD Definition
2
1. Define
List of
Parameters
2. Define
Prioritization
Factors
3. Rank
Prioritization
Factors
4. Score Each
Parameter
per Factor
5. Calc & Sort
Parameters
by Score
INPUT to Meeting PROCESS during Meeting OUTPUT from Meeting
Copyright © 2011-2019 by Matthew J. Hansen. All Rights Reserved. No part of this publication may be
reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means (electronic, mechanical, photographic,
photocopying, recording or otherwise) without prior permission in writing by the author and/or publisher.

3. The QFD Process
o INPUT to Meeting
• #1 - Define List of Parameters
 The items to be prioritized should be informally collected prior to the meeting.
 Every team member should be allowed to contribute an item to the list.
– A definition of each item should be included.
– Items should not be removed from the list nor discussed once they’re added to the list.
 The meeting should be scheduled and include all team members (ideally not more than 10 people).
– The meeting may take 2 to 4 hours depending on the number of parameters defined (ideally not more than 25).
o PROCESS During Meeting
• Meeting Kick-Off (~20 min)
 The Sponsor/Champion should kick off the meeting and return at the end to review the results.
 The list of parameters should be agreed upon by the team; allow for some clarification as needed.
• #2 – Define Prioritization Factors (~30 min)
 The factors should represent what’s critical to that team (ideally only 3 to 5 factors)
 Thresholds for determining High, Medium, and Low should be defined.
 Example prioritization factors and thresholds:
Copyright © 2011-2019 by Matthew J. Hansen. All Rights Reserved. No part of this publication may be
reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means (electronic, mechanical, photographic,
photocopying, recording or otherwise) without prior permission in writing by the author and/or publisher.
3
Prioritization Factor Low Medium High
Financial Impact
(e.g., Revenue, Expenses, etc.)
$0 - $100K/yr $100K - $1M/yr Over $1M/yr
Customer Satisfaction
(Internal & External)
No Impact
Impacts either internal
or external customers
Impacts both internal and
external customers
Project Timeliness Over 6 months 3 to 6 months Less than 3 months
Probability of Success Less than 50% 50% to 75% Over 75%

4. QFD: Process (Cont’d)
o PROCESS During Meeting (continued)
• #3 – Rank Prioritization Factors (~10 – 20 min)
 The prioritization factors themselves must be ranked in order of priority (highest priority should get highest
numerical rank; i.e., something ranked as 1 is actually the lowest ranking).
 If one or more factors are significantly more important than others, then it may be necessary to weigh the
ranking even higher.
– For example, if there are 5 factors, they could be easily ranked from 5 to 1. However, if the #5 ranking is significantly
more important than the other remaining factors, it could be given a higher rank like 7 or 10.
– The scale for ranking (i.e., using 5 to 1, or 100 to 1, or 1000 to 1, etc.) is not as important as getting them in the proper
order and assigning appropriate weighting to each factor.
• Below is an example of the “QFD 1 Definition” tab where these items are entered…
Copyright © 2011-2019 by Matthew J. Hansen. All Rights Reserved. No part of this publication may be
reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means (electronic, mechanical, photographic,
photocopying, recording or otherwise) without prior permission in writing by the author and/or publisher.
4
QFD Title: Home Projects
Y's X's
Prioritization Factors Importance Notes Home Projects
Cost to finish 3 L=0 - $100; M=$100 -
$500; H>$500
Fix brakes on car
Cost/Risk if it's not done 1 L=0 - $100; M=$100 -
$500; H>$500
Install irrigation system
Time to research & do it 2 L > 14 days; M = 2 to
14 days; H < 2 days
Repair deck flooring
Upgrade bathroom light fixture
Install new countertops
Replace roof shingles
Create QFD Add Remove Parameter Rename Parameter
#1 – List of Parameters
#3 – Ranking#2 – Prioritization Factors

5. QFD: Process (Cont’d)
o PROCESS During Meeting (continued)
• #4 – Score Each Parameter per Factor (~30 – 60 min)
 Click the “Create QFD” button on the “QFD 1 Definition” tab and a new worksheet is created (named after
the “QFD Title” in cell B1). All items on the QFD (except for the scores) are automatically entered.
 It’s generally easiest to take one parameter column at a time and ask the team to assess the High, Medium
or Low impact they believe that parameter has on each prioritization factor.
 This scoring process should be VERY quick; allow only 10 to 30 seconds to score each item.
– The items to score is equal to the # of parameters multiplied by the # of factors. So if you have 10 parameters and 5
factors, that’s 50 items to score. If the team spends 2 minutes of discussion for each, that can drag out to 100 minutes!
– To help it move quickly, tell the team that anyone can shout out the score and then immediately enter their answer and
move to the next item. You can allow an extra minute or two to review the answers before going to the next parameter.
Copyright © 2011-2019 by Matthew J. Hansen. All Rights Reserved. No part of this publication may be
reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means (electronic, mechanical, photographic,
photocopying, recording or otherwise) without prior permission in writing by the author and/or publisher.
5
Home Projects
Prioritization Factors
Importance
Replaceroofshingles
Installnewcountertops
Installirrigationsystem
Repairdeckflooring
Fixbrakesoncar
Upgradebathroomlightfixture
Total
Cost to finish 3 H H M L L L 72
Time to research & do it 2 L M H M L L 36
Cost/Risk if it's not done 1 H L L M M L 18
Total 38 34 28 12 8 6
#4 – High, Medium
or Low Scoring

6. QFD: Process (Cont’d)
o OUTPUT From Meeting
• #5 – Calculate & Sort Parameters by Score (~10 – 20 min)
 Once all scoring is done, click the “Sort QFD” button and all parameters will be automatically sorted with
those having the highest scores on the left and those having the lowest score on the right.
 How are these scores calculated?
– Hidden in the QFD are assigned values for your High, Medium & Low scores. H (or High) = 9, M (or Medium) = 3, and
L (or Low) = 1. The respective H, M, or L value is multiplied by the weighted rank (importance) for each factor.
 Review the results to see if the prioritized order makes sense to everyone.
– It’s OK if the team wants to change some scores – as long as the entire team agrees with the change.
– If scoring changes are made, click the “Sort QFD” button again to re-sort the parameters.
• Review this prioritized list with the Sponsor/Champion to get their agreement.
o Now What?
• Here are a few options for what to do next with the prioritized list:
 If it’s a small list (5 to 10) items, each item can be assigned to a team member to lead that item.
 If it’s a large list (Over 10 items), then review the total score assigned to each parameter in the list. If there
are logical breaks or gaps in the scores, then only target the items with the higher scores.
– If these are project opportunities, then consider selecting the top 3 or 5 from the list, assign a person or small team to
investigate each opportunity to help define and size (in scope & benefits) each one.
– Items to the far right of any logical breaks or gaps should probably not be considered at all (the reason is because once all
the other ones are complete, new items may fill the pipeline that will require this QFD exercise to be run again).
• This QFD may need to be built periodically depending on how often the parameters change.
Copyright © 2011-2019 by Matthew J. Hansen. All Rights Reserved. No part of this publication may be
reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means (electronic, mechanical, photographic,
photocopying, recording or otherwise) without prior permission in writing by the author and/or publisher.
6

7. Practical Application
o What competing projects, initiatives, or opportunities exist in your functional area?
• How are these usually prioritized?
• How would you prioritize them? Would other people in your area agree with you?
• Do these items need formal prioritization (like using a QFD tool)?
 If so, then follow the steps for building a QFD for all these items.
Copyright © 2011-2019 by Matthew J. Hansen. All Rights Reserved. No part of this publication may be
reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means (electronic, mechanical, photographic,
photocopying, recording or otherwise) without prior permission in writing by the author and/or publisher.
7