The method for strategic alignment of organization’s activities based on the technology of the quality function deployment

Abstract

The paper aims to develop a method for strategic alignment of the organization’s activities based on the technology of the Quality Function Deployment. This method contributes to alignment of the objectives and metrics of current activities (business processes, functional systems) and development activities of the company (projects and development programs) with the objectives and strategy of the company. It also ensures the prioritization of activities and identifies the relationships between organizational capabilities and objectives. The paper presents formalization of the Quality Function Deployment technology by building a method-specific ontology. The method can be used for managing enterprise transformation along with the other enterprise architecture management methods and technologies based on organizational modeling due to a high degree of its formalization achieved by building an ontology. This is especially important in the digital economy era, when the object of enterprise transformation is not only organization of work, but also information systems of companies. The proposed method has an advantage in that it ensures a high level of adaptability to the management problem being solved and the terminology being used within the organization. It enables carrying out a strategic alignment both for the business area as a whole and for the functional system (domain) separately. Moreover, despite a high degree of formalization, the underlying Quality Function Deployment table-graphic technology provides opportunities for visualization, which makes the considered method of strategic alignment of the organization’s activities readily available for understanding and use among practicing managers. Implementation of the method under consideration is shown in the context of developing an operating strategy for a medical company.