Quality is one of the key factors in software engineering business. Since errors, defects and deficiencies in requirements cost considerably more to correct than errors of later phases of software development there is a lot of interest to improve the quality of requirements.

This master's thesis introduces Quality Function Deployment (QFD) matrix tool as a method to improve the quality of requirements and help project management in a small-scale project. QFD is a method of customer oriented product development and it has been used a lot in various industries.

In the theoretical discussion part of thesis different concepts connected to the quality of software are presented and their characteristics are discussed especially from point of view of a small project.

The empirical part of this study describes first a study case of a software project called Code register. The scope of the project was to rebuild a Code register -software used in a large public administration organization in Finland. Secondly the empirical part concentrates on using QFD in requirements analysis and describing the result of using it.

Keywords and terms: Quality Function Deployment, Small-scale project, Software engineering