Title: Using an updating urn-scheme for prioritising quality requirements in the early stage of collaboration design

Authors: Ping-Hung Hsieh, Ping Ge, Stefan Meier

Addresses: Bexell Hall 402, College of Business, Oregon State University, Corvallis, OR 97331, USA. ' Rogers Hall 204, School of Mechanical, Industrial, and Manufacturing Engineering, College of Engineering, Oregon State University, Corvallis, OR 97331, USA. ' RUAG Land Systems Allmendstrasse 86, CH-3602 Thun, Switzerland

Abstract: The effective prioritisation of quality requirements (QR) at the early stage in collaborative product development is studied. The proposed urn-scheme method in prioritising QRs differs from the existing voting mechanisms in two major directions. Firstly, the proposed method explicitly incorporates social dynamic factors such as interpersonal trust and trustworthiness into the voting process. These latent factors are quantified and measured allowing us to visualise their effects on individual stakeholder|s prioritisation list. Secondly, with the most trusted stakeholders| prioritisation lists amplified and the least trusted stakeholders| opinions down weighed, the final combined prioritisation list, weighing over all individual lists, is the direct result of voting and social dynamics, all quantified, and thus, relative importance of quality requirements can be derived.

Keywords: group decision making; prioritisation; product quality; urn scheme; collaborative design; quality requirements; product development; product design; interpersonal trust; trustworthiness; voting; social dynamics.

DOI: 10.1504/JDR.2007.016855

Journal of Design Research, 2007 Vol.6 No.4, pp.444 - 461

Published online: 25 Jan 2008 *

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