International Council on Systems Engineering




Tools Survey: Requirements Management (RM) Tools

Introduction:  The Tools Database Working Group welcomes you to the Requirements Management Tool Survey.  By way of some background, the Tools Database Working group consists of both tools users and tool suppliers who have been around Requirements tools for a number of years.  Due to our common interest we began gathering information on Requirements Tools and working with the Requirements Management Working Group, developed a set of requirements for Requirements Management tools (thus the questions/requirements you are about to see).  We surveyed the tool vendors asking them how they felt they stacked up against the requirements and you see the results as received from the vendors.  Thus the disclaimer below...each of us associated with the Tools Database have strong opinions about these tools--what they can and can not do from our own experience; however being a professional society, we did not feel it was our place to edit the answers or judge the truthfulness of the answers.  As the well known joke in the CAE business goes...

    What's the difference between a CAE salesman and a used car salesman?  

    The used car salesman knows he's lying.

As such, we apologize in advance for the "quality" of some of the vendor supplied answers and recommend that you verify the answers to your critical requirements yourself (and be sceptical of any vendor who claims they can do everything). 

Disclaimer: The raw data included in this page is provided as survey information only to INCOSE members. There is no intent by INCOSE to endorse any tool listed or discredit any tool not listed. The data has NOT been verified by INCOSE as to its accuracy or validity and therefore all users are cautioned to use at their own discretion. INCOSE can not be held accountable for any interpretations, liabilities or damages that may occur should any of the provided data be inaccurate, misstated, or in any other way misrepresent its correct status. All users are encouraged to conduct their own verification of the data prior to its use. Reliance or use of the data is solely at the users own risk.

NOTE: The following table contains clickable links to vendor's contact information (click on a vendor's column header), requirements (click on any requirement row), and particular vendor responses to a given requirement (click on applicable row and column.)

RM Tool Survey Summary

! symbol indicates explanation available or question requires explanation

 Analyst Studio (RequisitePro) v2002 Caliber RM 3.0 C.A.R.E. 3.0 Catalyze
1.0		 CORE 4.0 Cradle  4.0 DOORS 6.0 QSS requireit
1.0		 Envision 5.4.2 IRqA
2.1		 RMTrak 5.0.4 Team Trace 2.1 Tracer 4.1 RDT
1.0		 RTM 4.x SLATE 6.1 SpeeDev
3.5		 Systems Engineer 2 Tofs 98 XTie-RT
Response Date March 2002 May. 2002 June 2002 April
2002		 March
2002		 Dec. 2002 March 2002 May 1999 April 2000 Dec. 2002 April 2002 June 2002 Nov. 2000 Dec.
2002		 June 1999 June. 2002 Dec.
2002		 Jan. 2000 July 1998 July 1998
1. Capturing Requirements/Identification                                        
1.1. Input document enrichment / analysis Full Full Full Full Full Full Full Full Full Full Full None Full Full Full Part. None None   None
1.1.1. Input document change / comparison analysis Full Full Full Full Full Full Full None Full Full Full Part. Full Full Full Full Full None None None
1.2. Automatic parsing of requirements Full Full Full Part. Full Full Full Full Full Full Full Full Full Full Full Full Full None None Full
1.3. Interactive/semi-automatic requirement identification Full Full Full Full Full Full Full Part. Full Part Full Full Full Full Full Part. None None Part. Full
1.4. Manual requirement identification Full Full Full Full Full Full Full Full Full Full Full Full Full Full Full Full Full Part. Full Full
1.5. Batch mode operation Full Full Full Full Full Full Full None Full Full ! Full Part. Full Full Part. Full None Part. Full
1.5.1. Batch-mode document/source-link update Full Full Full Full Full Full Full Full Full Full Full None Full Full Full Part. Full   None None
1.6. Requirement classification Full Full Full Full Full Full Full Full Full Full Full Full Full Full Full Full Full Full Full Full
                                         
2. Capturing system element structure                                   Full    
2.1. Graphically capture systems structure Full Full Full Full Full Full Full Full Full Full Full Full Full Full Full Full Full None Full Full
2.2. Textual capture of systems structure Full Full Full Full Full Full Full Full Full Full Full Full Full Full Full Full Full Full Full Full
                                         
3. Requirements flowdown                                        
3.1. Requirements derivation (req. to req, req. to analysis/text) Full Full Full Full Full Full Full Full Full Full Full Full Full Full Full Full Full Full Part. Full
3.2. Allocation of performance requirements to system elements (weight, risk, cost, etc.) Full Full Full Full Full Full Full Full Full Full Full Part. Full Full Part. Full Full Full Full Full
3.3. Bi-directional requirement linking to system elements Full Full Full Full Full Full Full Full Full Full Full Full Full Full Full Full Full None Full Full
3.4. Capture of allocation rationale, accountability, test/validation, criticality, issues, etc. -- if so, how and what mechanism does it use. Full Full Full Full Full Full Full Full Full Full Full Full Full Full Full Full Full Full Full Full
                                         
4. Traceability analysis                               !           
4.1. Identify inconsistencies (orphans,...if so, what kind of...) Full Full Full Full Full Full Full Full Full Full Full Full Full Full Full Full Full Full Full Full
4.2. Visibility into existing links from source to implementation--i.e. follow the links. Full Full Full Full Full Full Full Full Full Part Full Full Full Full Full Full Full Full Full Full
4.3. Verification of requirement (was it done, how was done) Full Full Full Full Full Full Full Full Full Full Full Full Full Full Full Full Full Full Full Full
4.4. Requirement performance verification from system elements (roll up of actuals) Part. Part. Part. Part. Full Full Full None Full Part Part. Full Part. Full Full Full Full Part. Part. None
                                         
5. Configuration Management                                        
5.1. History of requirement changes, who, what, when, where, why, how. Full Full Full Full Full Full Full None Full Full Full Full Full Full Full Full Full Part. Part. Full
5.2. Baseline/Version control Part. Full Full Full Full Full Full Full Full Full Part Full Part. Full Full Full Full None Part. Full
5.3. Access control (modification, viewing, etc.) Part. Full Full Part. Full Full Full Full Full Full Part Full Part. Full Full Full Full Full Part. Full
                                         
6. Documents and other output media                                        
6.1. Standard specification output (if so, what kind) Full Full Full Full Full Full Full Full Full Full Full Full Full Full Full Full Full Part. Full Full
6.2. Quality and consistency checking (spell, data dictionary, ) Full Full Full Full Full Full Full Full Full Part Full Part. Full Full Full Full Part Part. Full Part
6.3. Presentation output Full Part. Full Full Full Full Full Full Full Part Full Full Full Full Full Part. Full None Part. Full
6.4. Custom output features & markings (definable tables, security marking) Full Full Full Full Full Full Full Full Full Full Full Full Full Full Full Full Full Part. Part. Full
6.5. WYSIWYG previewing of finished output Full Full Full Full Full Full Full Full Full Full Full Full Full Full Full Full Full Full Full Full
6.6. Status reporting Full Full Full Full Full Full Full Full Full Full Full Full Full Full Full Full Full Part. Full Full
6.6.1. Technical Performance Measurement status accounting Full Full Full Part. Full Full Full Full Full Full Part. Full Part. Full Full Full Full Part. Full Full
6.6.2. Requirement progress/status reporting Full Full Full Full Full Full Full Full Full Full Full Full Full Full Full Full Full Full Full Full
6.6.3. Other ad hoc queries and searches Full Full Full Full Full Full Full Full Full Full Full Full Full Full Full Full Full Full Part. Full

6.7. Support and display special character sets.

   Full Full           Full Full   Full Full     Full None      
                                         
7. Groupware                       Full Full   !  ! ! !      
7.1. Support of concurrent review, markup, and comment Full Full Full Full Full Full Full Part. Full Full Part. Full Part. Full Full Full Full None Full Full
7.2. Multi-level assignment/access control Full Full Full Part. Full Full Full None Full Full Part. Full Part. Full Full Full Full Part. None Full
                                         
8. Interfaces to other tools                                        
8.1. Inter-tool communications Full Full Full           Full Full       Full Full ! !     Full
8.1.1. Interfaces to other tools? Full Full Full ! ! ! ! None Full Full Full Full   !    !  ! ! ! None ! !
8.1.2. External Applications Program Interface available Full Full Full Full Full ! Full None Full Full Full Full Full Full Full Full Full None Full None
8.1.3. Support Open database system (standard query access) Full Full Full Part. Part. Full Part. None Full Full Full Full Full Full Full Full Full Full ! None
8.1.4. Import of existing data from various standard file formats? Full Full Full ! ! Full Full Part. Full Full Full Full Part. Full Full Full Full Part. None Full
8.2. Intra-tool communications                                     !  
8.2.1. Exchange of information between same-tool different installations Full Full Full Full Full Full Full None Full Full Full Full Full Full Full Full Full None ! Full
8.2.2. Consistency/comparison checking between same-tool datasets Part. None Full Full Full Full Full None Full Full Full Full None Full Part. Part. Full None None Part.
                                         
9. System Environment                                        
9.1. Single user/multiple concurrent users Full Full Full ! ! ! !   !    !    !    !    !    !  Full Full ! !   !  ! !
9.2. Multiple Platforms/Operating Systems? Full Full Full ! ! ! !   !    !    !    !    !    !    !  ! ! !   !  ! !
9.3. Commercial vs. unique database Full Full Full ! ! ! ! None   !    !    !    !    !    !  ! ! !   !  ! !
9.4. Resource requirements   !                                    !     
9.4.1. Memory requirements   !    !    !  ! ! ! !   !    !    !    !    !    !    !  ! ! !   !  ! !
9.4.2. CPU requirements   !    !    !  ! ! ! !   !    !    !    !    !    !    !  ! ! !   !  ! !
9.4.3. Disk space requirements   !    !    !  ! ! ! !   !    !    !    !    !    !    !  ! ! !   !  ! !
                                         
10. User Interfaces                                        
10.1   Doing one thing while you are looking at another Full Full Full Full Full Full Full None Part. Full Full None Full Full Full Full Full Full Part. Full
10.2   Simultaneous update of open views Full Full Full Full Full Full Full None Full Part Part. None Part. Full Part. Full Part Full Part. Full
10.3   Interactive graphical input/control of data Full Full Full Full Full Full Full Part. Full Full Full None Full Full Full Full Full None None None
10.4   Which window standard do you follow?    !     !    !     !      !     !    !    !    !    !    !    !    !    !  ! ! !   !  ! !
10.5   Executable via scripts (recordable) or macros Part. Full Full Part. Full ! Full Full Full Full Part. Full Part. Full Full Full Full Part. None Full

10.6  Web browser Interface?

 Full Full Full Full   Full Full None None Full Part. Full Part. Full Full Full Full      

10.7  Edit Undo Function Support

   Part. Full           Full Part   Part. Part.     Full None      
                                         
11. Standards--which one do you comply with? !   !    !  ! ! ! !   !    !    !    !    !    !    !  ! ! !   !  ! !
                                         
12. Support and maintenance                                        
12.1. Warranty Full Full Full ! ! ! !   !    !    !  !   !    !    !  ! ! !   !  ! !
12.2. Network license policy Full Full Full Full Full Full !   !  Full Full !   !    !  Full Full ! !   !  ! !
12.3. Maintenance and upgrade policy Full Full Full ! ! ! !   !  Full Full !   !    !    !  ! ! !   !  ! !
12.4   On-line help Full Full Full Full Full Full Full   !  Full Full !   !    !  Full Full ! !   !  ! Full
12.5   Internet access/World Wide Web home page location Full Full Full Full Full   !    !    !  Full Full   !    !    !    !  ! ! !   !    !    ! 
12.6   Phone support   !  Full Full Full Full   !  Full   !  Full Full   !    !    !    !  ! ! !   !  ! Full

12.7  Support User's Group

   Full Full           None None   Full None              
                                         

13.   Training

                                        
13.1 Tool specific training classes. Full Full Full           Full Full     !    !               
13.2 Training available at customer's location. Full Full Full           Full Full     !    !               
13.3   Recommended training time Full Full Full ! ! ! !   !  Full Full !   !    !    !  ! ! !   !  ! !
13.4   Software installation with only basic training.   !   Full Full           Full Full     !    !               
                                         
14. What other requirements management features do you as a tool supplier think are important (modeling, etc.)?   !    !    !    !    !    !  !   !    !    !    !    !    !    !    !  ! !   !  ! !

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