7 Requirements Engineering Tools to Make Your Life Easy – Zumvie

A big part of an engineering manager’s role is to create effective strategies, implement project plans, and make sure everything and everyone is on the right track. This is where requirements management comes into play. With the complex nature of projects and several teams to manage, engineering managers can become a nightmare to stay on top of things manually.

Fortunately, there are some tools and software to help with the process. These tools, collectively referred to as requirements engineering tools, can make the lives of engineering managers a lot easier. Given the demanding nature of modern workplaces, it is essential for engineering managers to learn these tools, thus adding value to their work.

This article will cover some of the best requirements engineering tools to help you manage your projects effectively.

1. Xebrio – Requirements Management Software

Xebrio is a complete requirements management ecosystem that offers end-to-end traceability across project and product development phases. It is designed for teams to manage the entire lifecycle of the project or product development starting with project requirements gathering and approval and eliminates the need for multiple tools to manage one project.

Xebrio’s requirements approval workflow involves all stakeholders and guarantees total transparency throughout the requirements gathering process. Users of Xebrio can freeze the requirements for compliance reasons. The real-time collaboration feature of Xebrio is intended to increase remote teams’ productivity and keep all project-related discussions structured and open.

Xebrio offers a free trial of 14 days across all features. 

2. Jira for requirements engineering

Jira is a platform primarily built for project tracking and management. However, Jira can also be used for requirements engineering in conjunction with Confluence, allowing you to trace and customize dozens of tasks and projects with their requirements at a given time. Engineering management professionals can make great use of this platform to keep track of the project tasks (issues) and create issue-level requirements.

Jira with Confluence integration provides a lot of control and customization to engineering managers. You can create the workflows in several ways and allow everyone to view the requirements pages in line with Jira issues/tasks that correspond to it. 

One of the best things about Jira is its impressive UI. To learn more about how to use Jira for requirements engineering, check out this article.

Features:

• Keep everyone on the same page by sharing tasks among and across teams
• Measure and track performance by viewing detailed reports
• Link requirements to specific issues/tasks via Confluence
• Manage changes in tasks and projects and integrate with existing tools
• Trace and track tasks to the minor details

Talking about Jira and Confluence, Zumvie — the best one-on-one tool is built directly on Jira and as a Standalone app.  With Zumvie, engineering managers that use Jira will save time adopting a new tool.

Zumvie is constantly evolving, and there’s much more to it, so if you use Jira, start a trial now! if not check out the standalone app for free.

3. Doc Sheets

One of the most important things to manage and keep track of for engineering managers is documentation. A project goes through so many stages and variations from planning to completion that it can be hard to keep track of everything. This is where Doc Sheets is instrumental.

Doc Sheets is one of the most efficient requirements engineering tools, which helps you control and customize a project’s entire lifecycle. The tool enables you to manage the documentation and makes traceability easier and faster than ever.

Features:

• Create, use, and reuse documentation templates for multiple projects
• Track the lifecycle of every phase in the project and return it for revisions
• Manage and maintain different versions of test cases
• Generate reports and other documents in several formats

4. RequirementsHub

RequirementsHub is another remarkable tool for requirements engineering management. This tool is specially designed for software and IT companies where managing projects can be extremely tricky. The tool comes with hundreds of built-in templates from dozens of organization categories, ensuring that you find something that meets your needs.

RequirementsHub gives you a lot of control in managing and prioritizing tasks, thus making you a quality engineering manager without a lot of documentation to handle. One of the best things about RequirementsHub is accessing webinars, tutorials, and other learning material when you purchase the tool. These training sessions can help you understand and use RequirementsHub in an efficient way.

Features:

• Collaborate and work on documents in the form of a team
• Track the history of changes and prioritize tasks as needed
• Generate and manage automatic reports
• Manage and track changes in various projects with ease

5. IBM Engineering Requirements Management DOORS Next

In the world of engineering and engineering management, IBM holds credibility. DOORS Next, one of the best requirements engineering tools, contributes to that credibility. The best feature of this tool is its interoperability. IBM’s DOORS Next works perfectly well with other tools for lifecycle management, collaboration, and reporting.

However, IBM’s products are best suited for big corporations where several projects are to be managed in a short time, that too while collaborating with other teams. It is essential to consider this factor as small businesses may not afford such a tool.

Features:

• Minimize effort with increased reusability
• Utilize the cloud to be on top of everything from anywhere
• Use AI for effective requirements management
• Improve collaboration with other individuals and teams

6. ReqSuite® RM

ReqSuite® RM is an easy-to-learn requirements engineering tool with a lot of support and customization on offer. ReqSuite® RM is designed explicitly for engineering managers dealing with many projects at a given time, so they don’t have to spend months learning the tool itself.

The best feature of ReqSuite® RM is its simple learning curve and ease of use. The tool may not suit big businesses, something that IBM DOORS Next can handle. Still, it is perfect for smaller organizations and startups.

Features:

• Manage requirements and keep track of all versions with ease
• Make use of several reusable templates
• Control and define workflows, managing the tiniest of details
• Synchronize with other tools and platforms without any hassle

7. Modern Requirements

Modern Requirements is another excellent requirements engineering tool designed to meet the needs of modern technology companies. The tool provides a built-in extension to Azure DevOps, which many organizations use in building modern applications.

Modern Requirements, just like Jira, has a great UI and can provide a lot of automation in project management. The best thing is that this single application meets almost all the needs of engineering managers. You don’t have to download multiple applications for managing docs, collaborating on reports, and tracking the performance of a project.

Features:

• Create effective documents and build diagrams meeting the needs of your projects
• Manage multiple tasks and projects from a single dashboard to stay on top of things
• Review and approve work items online from anywhere in the world
• Manage relationships between requirements with smart traceability matrices

8. SpiraTeam

SpiraTeam, developed by Inflectra, is designed to track the progress of projects, manage engineering requirements, and keep an eye on quality. This tool is used both for requirements management and quality assurance, where you can easily trace the lifecycle of a project.

SpiraTeam comes with some integrations that you can use for project management, unit testing, and bug tracking. These integrations and the ease of use of this engineering requirements tool make it a comprehensive solution for modern organizations.

Features:

• Perform several tests to maintain and manage the quality of outputs
• Manage tasks and projects effectively and share details with team members
• Track issues, bugs, and errors in a live, collaborative environment
• Plan tasks and projects with an easy to use interface 

Conclusion

Engineering requirements tools are essential for all modern organizations. Engineering managers can greatly benefit from these modern tools and save time from manual, repetitive processes. The tools discussed above can help you add value to your projects.

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