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IBM releases Jazz-based requirements definition tool set


By Jeff Feinman
December 2, 2008 — 
IBM has completed part of the requirements puzzle with the general availability of a Jazz-based requirements definition product.

IBM Rational Requirements Composer, released today, is the newest creation of Big Blue’s Rational unit, complementing the Rational RequisitePro requirements manager. Company executives said that Requirements Composer takes IBM's requirements solution a step earlier in the life cycle than RequisitePro, as it helps software developers draft and define requirements from the start.

IBM’s Jazz platform, first embodied in the Rational Team Concert collaborative development portal, enables linking, tagging and chatting to let teams collaborate more efficiently, according to the company. With Jazz technology underlying Requirements Composer, all stakeholders have access to a project’s requirements.

Additionally, IBM said Jazz is a shared repository that can be an integration point between Requirements Composer and Telelogic’s Doors requirements management product, which IBM acquired when it bought Telelogic in April. In mid-November, IBM laid out a road map for how it will roll Telelogic’s portfolio into its Rational department. With regards to requirements, IBM executives said Doors is geared more towards systems with complex IT requirements.

IBM claims that project failures can cost organizations US$300 billion annually, and that 30% of software development projects have poor requirements definition and management.

Dave Locke, IBM Rational’s director of marketing, said getting people to agree on project requirements is challenging. Requirements Composer helps people shape ideas that define the project. Locke said the product ties together the ideas of business people, end users, business analysts and software developers.

“Requirements come in many different forms, and it’s absolutely a team sport,” he said. “Requirements Composer has this team awareness notion where I can identify who is on what team, and by identifying who the stakeholders are and prioritizing them, the tool itself becomes team aware. That means it knows what time zone you’re in and how you prefer to communicate.”

IBM touted Requirements Composer’s capacity to reduce paper consumption. Company executives said traditional requirements definition and management methods consist of many documents and spreadsheets, as well as diagrams being scribbled on paper. IBM’s product reduces paper use by digitizing diagrams and putting requirements into storyboards in similar fashion to “how movies are made.” Distributed teams can view the storyboards on the Web.

IBM is entering the requirements definition market, joining Ravenflow, which offers the Raven requirements definition product. Raven can be use on IBM Rational’s application life-cycle management platform, along with those of Hewlett-Packard and Microsoft. Blueprint Systems is among other companies offering a workbench for business users to gather requirements.

Locke said writing requirements is a matter of correlating different communication methods. “The written word speaks to certain people, while other people need a diagram,” he said. “By having this correlation, you can tie diagrams to words. You can tie UML or business process models to a diagram or a screenshot. By having these different techniques, you start funneling it down to the given set of requirements that will hopefully be implemented.”


Related Search Term(s): Jazz, Rational, requirements, IBM, Telologic


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