Requirements Management Tool Evaluation Criteria: An Update

The key to successful requirements management tool deployment is being able to perform requirements management effectively using the tool. This paper looks at the attributes of an ideal tool via a set of tool evaluation criteria. The paper updates a set of criteria developed by INCOSE in 2002, from insights obtained through successful use and deployment of requirements tools, supplemented by the literature. The paper finds that the updated tool evaluation criteria are due to the need for improved and more efficient processes, tools that are more mature and have more capability to offer and by the organisation using the tools being more mature and placing new requirements on the tools. The paper focuses on the use of requirements tools by the customer organisation, however the results are more widely applicable due to the consideration of the subsequent use of the tools by the contractor undertaking the system design and development.