Suggestions for requirements development tools that support CMMI goals

Question

We are currently developing our development processes to become CMMI compliant (we will start at level 2 and move on from there). We are trying to find a tool that is inexpensive (or free) that allows us to develop requirements in the spirit of CMMI. In other words, we should be able to introduce our requirements, track changes for them, provide alerts to individuals when requirements change, perform tracking, etc. Our projects are usually small (usually 3 to 7 developers and a tester or two).

We looked at many commercial tools, but they cost more than we can afford. We looked at SourceForge (OSRM and others), but couldn't find anything mature enough that also had the features we needed.

We are looking for offers for a tool that meets the above requirements.

Answer 1

INCOSE is a great resource for these kinds of questions. They maintain a Tool Database that indexes COTS and GOTS System Engineering tools. Some of the tools that perform requirements management also have high-level System Eng functionality (such as CORE), while others are more narrowly focused (i.e. RequistePro).

Most of these tools will cost money, but can provide limited free functionality. Workspace.com , for example, provides some free features. I would recommend not to shift your own solution or adapt a tool that is not specifically designed to manage requirements, since the hidden costs of its implementation, as well as inefficiency for a given task, can become burdensome.

If you absolutely cannot afford to spend money on a requirements tool, it would be better to use the free functionality from a commercial tool. But do not do this ... raise cash for RequisitePro and sleep better knowing that you are getting the right tool for the job.

Answer 2

How about starting from a wiki? We use TWiki , but there are many others available. Wiki we use

• Sends an email when any pages change.
• stores change history on every page
• Using automatic wiki linking, you can create a hierarchy of requirements.

This is similar to most of your items. Wikis like TWiki have plugins that can also help you.

If you have only 3-7 project developers using one of the great commercial tools, it can be too complicated for what you need.

Answer 3

We are actively working on CMMI in our company, but all our tools are developed on our own.

All I can recommend is to develop your own tools. You will at least have the advantage that it will reflect your business process.

In general, for a new tool, we start with a tool developed in the project, which is then shared with the rest of the company if it was successful. Don't be afraid to use Excel to track your requirements along with statutes that, along with a good change management system like subversion, give you more traceability.

Answer 4

At the company I worked for, I worked on customizing Visual Studio Team System work item templates to handle requirement tracking. One of the goals that you must consider was to ensure traceability from the requirements to the elements of the developers' work, and then to the defects. This allows a powerful analysis of what requirements are associated with the greatest number of defects.