Categories
Requirements

Comparison of IBM DOORS and IBM DOORS Next

IBM offers two products for requirements management, IBM Engineering Requirements Management DOORS (DOORS) and IBM Engineering Requirements Management DOORS Next (DOORS Next), that have similar capabilities but different implementation and strategic opportunities. DOORS is a market-leading solution for requirements management with a rich scripting language, a wide range of RM capabilities, and a large community of active users. It is suitable for large and small projects and integrates with other products. DOORS Next is a collaboration platform with a web client that offers visual requirements definition, work item and test integration, and planning capabilities. It runs as an application on the Jazz server and can be integrated with other IBM Engineering Lifecycle Management products. Both products provide traceability, requirements-driven development and testing, and link to design and modeling resources, and can be used together. DOORS offers mature capabilities such as structured requirements specification modules, multi-level traceability, electronic signatures, baselines, and customizable views. It also has a programmable API called DXL and supports requirements change management. DOORS Next uses Jazz Team Server to support team collaboration and has a web client that allows users to define requirements in rich-text documents and visual representations. Both products use Engineering Document Generation and IBM Engineering Lifecycle Optimization – Publishing to generate customizable graphical reports.

For a high-level comparison of the client and server architecture in both tools, see the next diagram.

The diagram provides a high-level comparison of the client/server architecture in DOORS and DOORS Next.

For more information about DOORS, see the DOORS documentation.

For information about using the ELM, see Getting started with DOORS Next.

Categories
Requirements

Best practices for requirements management

The success of your products hinges on the quality of their requirements. As the complexity of connected products grows, systems engineers require better visibility into changes, deeper insight into data, and shared tools for global collaboration.

To facilitate these requirements, consider implementing the following:

Requirements Traceability: Connect individual artifacts to test cases to gain full visibility of changes to engineering requirements in real-time. Keep annotations, maintain them, and ensure easy accessibility.

Variant Management: Digitally manage the entire version and variant process while monitoring system progression via a shared dashboard. Store data centrally and present it in document format.

Engineering Compliance: Ensure compliance with industry standards and regulations by incorporating them into requirements early in the engineering lifecycle. This approach makes achieving compliance less complex.

Agile Management: Simplify engineering processes for global collaboration and establish a single source of truth. Build confidence among team members by demonstrating the real-time value of their efforts.

Categories
Requirements

Benefits of digital requirements management

Utilizing software for managing engineering requirements allows you to securely gather, track, analyze, and modify requirements from a centralized and accessible location. This promotes collaboration, transparency, and traceability, while minimizing the need for additional work and improving overall usability. Additionally, digital solutions enhance project agility and simplify the adherence to standards and regulatory compliance.

There are numerous advantages to implementing digital requirements management:

Real-time collaboration: The ability to collaborate in real-time from any location allows team members to share information easily between documents.

Reuse: By utilizing the same requirement in multiple areas without having to redefine it, baselines can be created to identify the requirement’s real-time state, thereby reducing the risk of user error.

Traceability: Keeping a comprehensive record of requirement changes ensures that your team can respond swiftly to audits, including identifying what changed, who changed it, and when it was altered.

Consistency: Requirements can be arranged logically and easily to ensure that they are understandable by both team members and stakeholders. Sorting requirements by priority, risk, status, and category can also improve consistency.

Categories
Requirements

Who is responsible for requirements management?

Although the product manager is usually accountable for curating and defining requirements, stakeholders from various departments, including customers, partners, sales, support, management, engineering, operations, and product team members, can also generate requirements. Effective communication is crucial to ensure the engineering team comprehends shifting priorities and any changes in requirements.

Categories
Requirements

Benefits of requirements management

Requirements management offers several benefits, such as reducing the cost of development across the product lifecycle, minimizing defects, mitigating risks for safety-critical products, accelerating delivery, enabling reusability, ensuring traceability, and linking requirements to test cases. Additionally, global configuration management allows for better control over product variations across different markets, reducing the risk of noncompliance and ensuring regulatory requirements are met.