A Method for Capturing, Tracking and Ranking the Relative Competitiveness of Competing Alternatives

An “old” and “new” method for ranking competing alternatives by capturing and tracking success criteria at the requirements level is proposed. The established old method of Quality Function Deployment (QFD) is reviewed and examined within the context of capturing customer and functional requirements, and cross correlating those requirements within a weighted scoring system. This provides a common frame of reference for comparing system solutions. Complementing the established method is the newly proposed OPU$ that uses prediction markets to track and forecast the relative competitiveness between solutions. This is done through market pricing of real options written on functional requirements that are directly traceable to product technical characteristics and user needs. The combination of QFD and OPU$ allows visibility, clarity, and continuous tracking of success criteria, and reveals the relative competitiveness of solution choices.