Priortitising Requirements

"Everything is important!" is perhaps the most common response given by our customers when asked to prioritise their requirements - not really a very useful input to help us in our efforts to become more customer focused. The reality is that while everything is important, perhaps some things are more important than others.

Analytic Hierarchy Process, AHP

The Analytic Hierarchy Process provides a rigorous method to assist in this difficult process of prioritisation and decision making. It is based around the concept of "pairwise" comparisons - it is easier to choose between two items than the full list of options. By working through the list in pairs, comparing the relative importance of each item, a matrix of comparisons is generated. With the application of some matrix mathematics (this is where the Excel templates come in) a ratio prioritisation scale is generated. Unlike the typical ordinal scale (1 - low to 5 -high), this ratio scale is more appropriate and mathematically correct when working with matrix diagrams such as used in the QFD process.

Excel Template

AHP Template Why not experiment a bit with the methods using our Excel template? If you want to understand more about how this method can be used in conjunction with other techniques such as Voice of Customer, QFD or decision making, then please contact us and we would be very happy to discuss some training solutions in more detail. You can download an Excel template for 3 to 15 parameters here......