CRITICAL

QUALITY TOOL OF THE MONTH

WHAT IS IT?

TO QUALITY
This Six Sigma tool is useful when
needing to define quality in a
product or service. Critical To Quality
Trees (CTQ Trees) can be used at the
inception phase of a project to focus

TREES
development on areas that really
matter, or to drive an improvement
initiative in existing products
or services.

WHEN AND HOW

CAN I USE IT?
HARDER TO MEASURE EASIER TO MEASURE
Any product or service can benefit
from CTQ Trees, which allow you
to simply and visually lay out the
elements critical to quality. This can NEED QUALITY DRIVER REQUIREMENT
focus a team and help to sell the right
approach in a simple format.
Optimised for
quick load time

Useability Mobile
compatible

Cross browser
complaint
Great user
experience

Intuitive

CASE STUDY
All content
Navigation available within
three clicks

Relevant results
Myspace was one of the most from any search
popular social media platforms
before Facebook existed. So, why Use of company
did Facebook succeed and Myspace branding
fail? One of the reasons contributing
to this was that Facebook had a Design Innovative
design/features
defined strategy to give users exactly
what they wanted as quickly as
Modern
possible – from new ways to connect Unique identity
with people, to popular games such
as FarmVille. The diagram to the right Multimedia
shows an example of using a
CTQ Tree to define quality in a Content
software or website design. New content
EXAMPLE OF A BASIC CTQ posted daily
TREE FOR THE DESIGN OF

DID YOU
SOFTWARE OR A WEBSITE

KNOW? STEPS
CTQ Trees are
often used in the
development of
products and services,
1 2 3 4
but it is possible to Define each Define the quality Determine the Start a new tree
build anything with critical ‘need’ ‘drivers’ for each performance for each need.
user requirements using a
that the service need that must criteria needed
CTQ Tree. Even a quality system!
or product must be in place for the to satisfy the
DESIGN: JO DOVEY
satisfy. customer to receive quality drivers.
WORDS: DARREN O’NEILL high quality.