Information Technology Planning For Collaborative Product Development Through Fuzzy QFD Jbid Arsenyan Industrial Engineering Department Bahcesehir University Istanbul, 34100, Turkey jbid.arsenyan@bahcesehir.edu.tr Gülçin Büyüközkan Industrial Engineering Department Galatasaray University Istanbul, 34357, Turkey gulcin.buyukozkan@gmail.com Abstract—Collaborative Product Development (CPD) becomes a more complex process to manage by the rapid technological change. As a consequence of various system features introduced by research groups and commercial packages, CPD practitioners lose track of the available platforms, protocols, applications, system features, and tools supporting CPD processes. This study aims to provide a mapping between the technological requirements for CPD and system features of these various infrastructures. Fuzzy Quality Function Deployment (QFD) is employed for mapping between requirements and features. An industrial expert is consulted for evaluation of derived relationships and consequently system features are prioritized. Keywords: Collaborative Product Development; Fuzzy QFD; Technology requirements. I. INTRODUCTION Due to its technology-centric nature, Collaborative Product Development (CPD) is typically based on technological infrastructures, which require for information technologies (IT) to be essential conveyors of good CPD performance [1]. However, the management of requirements and implementation of necessary tools to respond to these requirements constitute a complex process as the technological diversity grows rapidly. Current tools become hard to track and thus, evaluations are performed with incomplete and biased information given that assessing all systems is not possible. Previous studies do not propose a comprehensive review of CPD systems mainly because these systems including various applications, tools, and plug-ins are numerous; they can be easily outdated by new researches and are only known by a limited community. On the other hand, various systems are proposed by literature and commercial ventures in order to facilitate collaboration, integration, co-design, and co-development processes of CPD teams. In this highly uncertain environment, with various different requirements and numerous technological solutions, a systematic methodology is essential to plan the technological infrastructure needed to start and maintain the CPD process. Determining requirements and accordingly prioritizing technological response compose an important phase in IT planning. Some projects may require only communication tools, while others are dependent on highly skilled web-based engineering applications. A comprehensive and detailed planning methodology utilizing Quality Function Deployment (QFD) is introduced to help CPD practitioners in their development and collaboration efforts. QFD is a well established methodology in transforming customer needs into engineering characteristics and therefore its House of Quality (HoQ) diagram appears to be a suitable tool for mapping needs of CPD into existing tools and technologies. Additionally, mapping is performed under a fuzzy environment in order to translate linguistic evaluations of the expert into quantifiable performance measures. The aim of this study is to introduce a comprehensible methodology for IT planning, which can be employed by CPD practitioners before launching CPD projects. The study is organized as follows: next section introduces the technology planning literature, which covers studies in a general context. Then the fuzzy QFD is described and the methodology backgrounds are established. The fourth section presents CPD technology overview, which includes commonly used standards and environments, technology requirements and system features in CPD infrastructure. Then the IT planning with fuzzy QFD is presented with an evaluation of an industrial expert. The study concludes with a few remarks. II. TECHNOLOGY PLANNING BACKGROUND Use of proper technology is the most preferred factor in maintaining competitive advantage [2]. Systematic planning of technological infrastructure is therefore important in improving CPD performance. Efficiency and effectiveness of CPD are enhanced by appropriate implementation of tools and technologies enabling CPD [3], which can be attained through accurate mapping of requirements into the system features. A technology planning framework is proposed by Porter et al. [4], which includes technology forecasting, as well as environmental analysis and aims to design organizational actions. Value adding chain concept requires the implementation of technology within all aspects of the business. Martin [5] also starts with technology forecasting 115 Copyright (c) IARIA, 2012. ISBN: 978-1-61208-176-2 ICDS 2012 : The Sixth International Conference on Digital Society