What makes ReqSuite® RM so special...

Requirements management - tools are essential

When we talk about the development of software and systems, we cannot ignore one point: Tools are essential. Whether it's developing, testing, or managing requirements, nothing works today without the right tools. Among all these tools, requirements management plays a particularly important role.

Because without a clear plan of which features a product should have, it is almost impossible to effectively manage a project and meet set goals. There are now a lot of tools for just that purpose, the so-called Requirements Management (RM) tools. But other tools, which were actually intended for completely different tasks, are now also being used for requirements management.

One question we get asked a lot is what makes ReqSuite® RM so special and why you should choose this tool. Before we go straight into the answer, we want to use a small model (see Figure 1) to show you how the various tools in requirements management differ from one another.

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Different tools and their limits

Office Tools are at the lowest level of this model. They provide basic functions for documenting and storing information. Their general availability and ease of use make it easy to get started, making them a convenient choice for people tasked with documenting requirements. Office tools are still used as the most common tool in requirements management, but their limits quickly become apparent with larger projects or when cross-team collaboration is required.

Wikis represent the next level and offer improved opportunities for collaboration, versioning and linking of content. They enable teams to collect knowledge centrally and work together on documentation, making them now a popular choice for requirements documentation. However, they too have limits when it comes to detailed tracking and maintenance of individual requirements.

Issue tracking systems expand the range with your atomization, division of labor and task tracking capabilities. Although they were not originally developed for requirements management, they have proven useful for precisely documenting requirements and tracking their implementation. However, when it comes to keeping track of a wide range of requirements, ensuring an orderly exchange with external partners or meeting documentation requirements, these tools also reach their limits.

Classic RM tools offer specialized functions that are tailored directly to requirements management, such as export/import of requirements, baseline management and vision creation. They effectively address the specific challenges of this area, which makes them powerful tools and, due to their complexity, they are often only fully exploited by experts.

Being at the forefront of the model advanced RM tools such as ReqSuite® RM. We regard ReqSuite® RM as an advanced tool, as we attach particular importance to intuitive use, which means that the tool can not only be fully exploited by experts, but is also a pleasure to use. In addition to basic functions of classic RM tools, there are additional assistance functions and automation options for improved quality assurance, which have not yet been found in other tools on the market. ReqSuite® RM actively supports the user in creating, validating and managing requirements, which makes the tool particularly attractive for projects with high quality standards and also for users without expert status.

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How do I choose the right tool?

Let's take a closer look: With every higher level of tools, the benefits for companies also increase — in terms of efficiency, scalability and a reduction in the incidence of errors. This is achieved through features that address specific challenges in projects. For example, a wiki makes it easier to edit requirements collaboratively compared to an Office tool, and an RM tool promotes the reusability of requirements compared to an issue tracking system.

So what makes ReqSuite® RM so special?

Then there is ReqSuite® RM, which, with its additional assistance features, raises the question of whether this is real added value or just nice additional functions. But ultimately, the success of a project depends on the quality of the requirements and how we deal with them, not necessarily the “intelligence” of the tool. This is exactly where advanced RM tools such as ReqSuite® RM come in. They recognize that the quality of the requirements for all other types of tools still depends heavily on the expertise and care of the users — a fact that becomes problematic as the size of the project grows. While other tools certainly help with many challenges, they offer little help in efficiently creating, validating and maintaining a solid base of requirements. However, as long-standing statistics show, this is precisely the key to increasing development efficiency and minimizing project risks.

Thanks to its unique features, ReqSuite® RM is the only tool in the area of requirements management that enables you to achieve better requirements more quickly and thus significantly reduce additional effort and overhead over the course of the project by over 40%. It is therefore not only a question of functionality, but also of efficiency and strategic orientation in project management.