The followings is a list of some of the common pitfalls to avoid if an organization is considering implementing quality by design:

1. Team members should be assigned to functional departments as in sequential engineering. However their primary loyalty lies with the quality by design team. Do not eliminate the sequential engineering process: instead perform all design up front as a group with improved communication. For instance do not plan for ten man years to optimize company designs after a systems has been fully prototyped or plan for multiple design iterations of a new product before manufacturing.

2. Avoid promising to meet an unobtainable schedule carries a more severe penalty than meeting a longer one . for instance do not inflate a fabrication because lead time to allow from anticipated or uncontrolled design.

3. Avoid using tight tolerances and stringent requirements to obtain an one pass design.

4. Avoid changing product definition and specifications during the design phase. Costs increase exponentially when features are added through the development cycle that cause design tooling and production systems to change.

5. Avoid business as usual parts vendoring by suing the low below.

6. Avoid automating the product development phase before it is simplified.