%0 Journal Article %1 wiegers99 %A Wiegers, Karl E. %D 1999 %J Software Development Magazine %K management requirements %N 7 %T Automating requirements management %U http://www.processimpact.com/articles/rm_tools.html %V 7 %X t’s no secret that poorly understood user requirements and uncontrolled scope creep lead to many software project failures. Many software development organizations are improving the methods they use to gather, analyze, document, and manage their requirements. Project teams traditionally document their requirements in a structured software requirements specification (SRS) written in natural language. However, a document-based SRS has some limitations: * It’s difficult to keep current * It’s hard to communicate changes to the affected team members * It’s difficult to store supplementary information about each requirement * It’s hard to define links between functional requirements and corresponding use cases, designs, code, tests, and project tasks. A commercial requirements management tool that stores requirements and related information in a multi-user database provides a more robust solution. These tools provide functions to manipulate and view the database contents, import and export requirements, define links between requirements, and connect requirements to other software development tools. In this article, I’ll describe several benefits a requirements management tool can provide, identify the basic features to expect from such tools, and briefly review four commercial tools: TBI’s Caliber-RM, QSS’s DOORS, Rational’s RequisitePro, and Integrated Chipware’s RTM Workshop (Table 1). These tools won’t help you gather the right requirements for your project, and they don’t replace a defined process for managing your project’s requirements. A tool is not a process in itself, but it supports and enables an established process.

@article{wiegers99, abstract = {t’s no secret that poorly understood user requirements and uncontrolled scope creep lead to many software project failures. Many software development organizations are improving the methods they use to gather, analyze, document, and manage their requirements. Project teams traditionally document their requirements in a structured software requirements specification (SRS) written in natural language. However, a document-based SRS has some limitations: * It’s difficult to keep current * It’s hard to communicate changes to the affected team members * It’s difficult to store supplementary information about each requirement * It’s hard to define links between functional requirements and corresponding use cases, designs, code, tests, and project tasks. A commercial requirements management tool that stores requirements and related information in a multi-user database provides a more robust solution. These tools provide functions to manipulate and view the database contents, import and export requirements, define links between requirements, and connect requirements to other software development tools. In this article, I’ll describe several benefits a requirements management tool can provide, identify the basic features to expect from such tools, and briefly review four commercial tools: TBI’s Caliber-RM, QSS’s DOORS, Rational’s RequisitePro, and Integrated Chipware’s RTM Workshop (Table 1). These tools won’t help you gather the right requirements for your project, and they don’t replace a defined process for managing your project’s requirements. A tool is not a process in itself, but it supports and enables an established process.}, added-at = {2006-09-18T06:26:07.000+0200}, author = {Wiegers, Karl E.}, biburl = {https://www.bibsonomy.org/bibtex/24cfe364596310243d5bc34af102d8825/neilernst}, citeulike-article-id = {679909}, description = {Not previously uploaded}, interhash = {b869e0b9b4bb3d00a5c5a6dfe386a8f7}, intrahash = {4cfe364596310243d5bc34af102d8825}, journal = {Software Development Magazine}, keywords = {management requirements}, month = {July}, number = 7, priority = {0}, timestamp = {2006-09-18T06:26:07.000+0200}, title = {Automating requirements management}, url = {http://www.processimpact.com/articles/rm_tools.html}, volume = 7, year = 1999 }