A Case Study of Requirements Management: Toward Transparency in Requirements Management Tools

Requirements Management (RM) is a continuous activity that provides an interface between the requirements of engineering and other system development activities. Current literature offers an extensive set of general requirements for RM tools, and several RM tools are available that utilize these requirements. Interviews as a part of a case study to enhance the tool support reveal that the current RM tools do not provide enough transparency to the development process and its activities. The results from these interviews show problems (even with the basic features of RM tools) in decision-making support, reporting, and follow-up of development activities. This paper discusses the problems revealed in the interviews, and suggests further requirements for RM tools to address the problems with transparency. Keywords-requirements management; requirements management tools; transparency