Systematic Literature Review on Requirement Management Tools
Inam-Ul-Haq1, Waseem Abbas2, Wasi Haider Butt3
Department of Software Engineering1,2,3
College of Electrical & Mechnical Engineering, NUST
Rawalpindi, Pakistan1,2,3
iuhaq.cse19ceme@ce.ceme.edu.pk1, wabbas.cse19ceme@ce.ceme.edu.pk2, wasi@ceme.nust.edu.pk3,
Abstract— The requirement management is a process used
2022 International Conference on Emerging Trends in Smart Technologies (ICETST) | 978-1-6654-5935-8/22/$31.00 ©2022 IEEE | DOI: 10.1109/ICETST55735.2022.9922932
to manage project requirements. Requirement management
tools help the organization in many ways like it reduces budget
issues. Basic requirement management tools are Microsoft
word, spreadsheets etc. complex requirement management
tools may be a whole software system that will be used for
managing the interaction among different requirements and to
identify the impact of changes. For good requirements we need
management tools, and these requirements leads better
products and solutions of our problems. It is known that
requirements which are not well understood and unrestricted
changes to the scope of requirements leads to numerous
software projects to failure. So, good requirements are very
important for project success. Paper is about analyzing the
importance of requirement management tools. One thing is
understood that if requirements of the system are not best
understood then they will lead towards project failure. Many
professional people who are developing the projects sometimes
choose wrong requirement management tools for wrong
reasons. The aim of this paper is to examine types and benefits
of different requirement management tools and when to use
these tools. Requirement management tools are categorized
depending upon their use and features. This will helpful
developers as well people who use these tools. Lastly, we
conclude that Objectiver is the best tool among these all.
With the help of this tool stakeholder get a broader view
of system.
Keywords—Software Requirement Engineering (SRE),
Requirement Management Tools (RM Tools), Project
Management (PM).
1. INTRODUCTION
The first stage of any project starts from initializing the
customer needs or wants and then the wants or needs of
customer are transformed to project requirements. To fulfill
all the needs of customers and to develop right thing
accurately as needed, the number of requirements dictate the
scale and complexity of project [1]. The complete
requirement collections that are converted to project
requirements shall be accurately managed and arranged for
the favorable outcome of project. Maintaining several
thousands of needs or requirements is a hard piece of work
and can be managed only by a spreadsheet, but this problem
is not newly discovered for managers [2]. Couple of years
ago RM tools have been build and these tools are used in
many similar and dissimilar projects. Although a number of
these gadgets are presently being used to insecure software
evaluation or development [3]. RM tools helps to maintain
the interaction among business requirements, technical
requirements, and functional specification. The
characteristics of practitioner’s tools for example security,
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workflow, combination and describing details helps to
improves the effectiveness of Application Life-cycle
conduct [4]. The objective of these characteristic is to
corelate different activities that are helpful in software life
cycle development [5]. Poor requirement practices lead to
fate application development. It is useless if it does not meet
business demands, however it is well designed, well
documented, well-established, and well approved [6].
InfoTech Research Group is an IT analyst organization did a
survey, their findings were that 70% of IT project just fails
because of poorly management and understanding of people
needs and 50% of projects are redesigned due to disputed
matters of needs among people. Bugs that are present in the
requirements are the important basis for project failures and
these bugs were found in the testing phase. The common
problems of requirements are arising due to defective or
patchy requirements, requirements not change in a proper
way, managed poorly and sometimes some requirements are
missed [6]. People needs and requirements will define that
who will use the system, what the system is supposed to do
and what system should not do. Requirement can associate
to business process, business design, training,
documentation, and users [7].
Each task of the business and IT association must
incorporate increasingly visual based prerequisites over
content-based necessities like prototypes, recreations, and
models because it upgrades knowledge and comprehension
of the framework [8]. Requirement Management is a
process that is used to discover different ideologies of what
processes should be necessary to include [1]. The paper
explains the incorporate the concept of requirement manage
tools depending upon the size of project team members
working on it and number of requirements. Before choosing
RM tools which will foremost suitable for the project, first
we must understand the categories of requirement
management tools and needs of project.
2. LITERATURE REVIEW
RM tools are compared on the bases of different attributes
like functional requirements of the project as well non-
functional requirements of the project. Every tool consists of
some limitations and some attributes.
The writers inferred that hierarchical arrangements are
favored over innovation and universally useful apparatuses,
for example, word processors, database the executive’s
frameworks, and spreadsheets were utilized to help
requirement improvement [9].
 In the past traceability matrix, Requirement Prioritization,
Top Ten Requirements, Bubble Sort, MoSCoW and 100
Dollar Test were used to manage requirements.
• Traceability Matrix: This is used to discover
interactions among different requirements and
highlight conflicts and overlaps. It can be constructed
by using spreadsheets. Traceability matrix only work
when there are small number of requirements because
each requirement is compared with every other
requirement.
• Requirement Prioritization: It is an incremental
development approach. In this approach all the
requirements are assigned with a priority number that
defines the importance of the requirement for the
system.
• Top Ten Requirements: In top ten requirements you
will ask all stakeholders that put you top ten
requirements from all other requirements. In this way
you will manage important requirements form all
stakeholders in limited time.
• Bubble Sort: Bubble sort is a technique in which two
requirements are compared with each other and the
requirement that has greater priority than another
requirement, you swap them accordingly. You will
start doing this process until all requirements will be
managed accordingly.
These all techniques are very expensive and time
consuming.
Dynamic Object-Oriented Requirement System
(DOORS) is a good management tool that should be used
for functional and non- functional requirements.
CodeAssure is one of the best tools among other
management tools for security requirements [10].
3. METHODOLOGY
First, we have collected data about these tools from
internet. We have defined some parameters for comparison.
After collection of data about each RM tool and the
parameters upon which these tools will be compared. We
make comparison of these tools based on defined
parameters. Some of the tools supported maximum number
of parameters so according to these results we make the
decision that tis tool is best among all these.
4. CONSEQUENCES OF REQUIREMENT
MANAGEMENT TOOLS
Scope creep is a major problem in software development.
Inferable from miscommunication and inadequately
characterized necessity, existing procedures that are used for
building up prerequisites are regularly improvised and
wasteful [11].
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Ventures can accelerate advancement; decrease revise,
spare expense, and time by guaranteeing powerful necessity
definitions toward the start including elicitation,
investigation, particular and approval [12]. Assembled
requirement instruments were past devices but now
requirements definition apparatuses are inventive,
attributable to this purchaser expect that RM devices
improve their requirements definition applications [6].
5. REQUIREMENT MANAGEMENT TOOLS
RM tools are used to control development process of
requirements and management process of requirements.
Management of tasks exhaustively during performing
elicitation process manually takes a lot of time and is not
practical. Use of proper requirement management tools
supports developer teams to improve their productivity and
save consumption of time. Traceability is expected to keep
up and follow the connections among requirements and
plans, executions, and test antiquities. [13]. With great
instrument support, traceability could empower examination
that would somehow require more exertion and effort [14].
• Casecomplete Tool: Casecomplete tool helps to
modify or make changes to text of use case. It is also
used for creating different kinds of diagrams [10].
• Objectiver Tool: With the help of this tool
stakeholder get a broader view of system. This tool
provides the facility to design diagrams and explain
system concepts and interactions [15].
• RequisitePro: This tool is being used widely. The
tool provides similar services as MS word. With the
help of this tool one can manage the quality of
product to maximum level [15].
• Optimal Trace: This tool provides services to
analysts to receive good quality requirements and to
deliver the final product that should meet
stakeholders needs. With the use of this tool one can
design samples and profiles [16].
• DOORS: Traceability measurement is managed by
using this tool. It provides services for document
management [10].
• Analyst Pro: This tool provides services to manage
the vision of system. Requirements are classified by
using this tool to manage project scope [17].
• GMARC: In this tool generic methods are used for
faster elicitation of requirements; this will increase
reusability of requirements.
• RMTrack: This tool provides user the facility to
design documents in such a way as they want to
create them according to needs. Critical information
keeps in the document automatically [16].
Some other RM tools also exist like ReQtest, Modern
Requirements, Jama Software, Accompa, Caliber, Pearls,
 Perforce Helix RM, Product Board, Visure RM
Orcanos etc.
Table 1: Comparison of Tools
6. USE OF REQUIREMENT MANAGEMENT
TOOLS
RM tools are used on the bases of:
• Project team member size.
• Number of requirements for a project.
A. Number of Requirements for a Project
Spreadsheets and simple databases are used for small
projects that do not have more than 200 requirements.
Lightweight management tools are used for small projects
and best suit small companies. A medium-sized project with
200-2000 requirements usually needs a commercial tool
[18]. Databases and spreadsheets do not have the
capabilities to supply various functionality of business RM
tools. The large projects that have more than 2000
requirements requires best and efficient business
requirement management tools to stay away from errors,
bugs, and project delays.
B. Project Team Member Size
Many firms consider projects depending upon the size
of team assigned for its development. Business RM tools are
not required for those projects that do not have more than 5
members working on it and they belong to the same city or
same areas. Wikis, word processors, even index cards and
spreadsheets suffice for managing the requirements of the
project [18]. Business RM tools are mostly used for larger
teams which are spread far away like belonging to different
cities or different countries.
7. TYPES OF REQUIREMENT MANAGEMENT
TOOLS
Maximum RM tools consist of the same main
functionalities. There are many RM tools exist, but broadly
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and Now these tools are compared with some parameters in
figure shown below:
these tools are divided into three main categories.
Requirements Management tools can be classified into [18]:
A. Heavyweight RM Tools
Heavyweight results are completely unified or joined
results which properly handles the RM lifecycle from the
beginning till end. These Requirements Management Tools
needs heavy investment and lucrative for the large projects
[19].
Example: IBM Rational RequisitePro, Rational
DOORS, Borland Caliber RM.
B. Middleweight RM Tools
Middleweight tools are good for medium-sized
associations and medium-sized organizational units inside
the large associations [19]. Middleweight RM tools do not
require a lot of investment. These tools provide fully stated
combination of actions such as usability and availability etc.
Example: Accompa Requirements Management Tool,
Jama Software.
C. Lightweight RM Tools
Small firms where there’s no procedures foregoing uses
lightweight tools for their compact or portable projects.
They utilize wiki kind collective workspaces and
spreadsheets etc. lightweight tools are cheap and
surprisingly free of cost. Most firms have tendency to make
these kinds of tools rapidly.
Example: liteRM, rmtoo.
8. SELECTION OF REQUIREMENT
MANAGEMENT TOOLS
Most of the firm chooses wrong RM tools that do not
suitable for fulfilling their needs. RM tools are used by
several persons like it can be used by analyst to elicit
requirements, by project managers for managing their
 projects and teams working on a project and by
development team to improve the effectiveness of RM
practices It is helpful in creating full grown application
programming software’s [20].
RM instrument encourages programing experts to lessen
work and improve consumer loyalty [21]. One should
always require using those types of tools which will be used
to keep rationale of requirement and provide traceability of
needs or requirements etc. Developer must be familiar with
the good and bad effects or RM tools as a result to choose
alternatives. Mostly development firms mishandle during
the selection process of RM tools and assuming a lot from
that tool. Compiling every feature that exist in requirements
administration or management tools instead of features that
are important and needed, this provides them to obtain more
complex, compound, and costly tools [4].
Table 2: Requirement Management Tools Overview
9. BENEFITS OF REQUIREMENT
MANAGEMENT TOOLS
There are multiple advantages of using RM tools in the
projects. By using RM tools one can line up all project
features so that it will become easier for firm to manage
these features and perform project tasks in more efficient
and consistent way. One of the most significant advantages
of prerequisite administration are incorporation of hardware
with less component devices, for the exercises like change
the executives and test the board or management [5].
Incorporation of hardware with less element apparatus is an
overwhelming errand and getting requirements the
management abilities as a component of the stage [8]. Lean
toward the apparatuses with right highlights, not the most
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Looking for the suitable requirements management
answers, application improvements and program
management experts frequently get stumbled by desire
[22]. RM leader thinks that if a team do not acquire that tool
which must has complete ingredient or attributes for
managing a complete project, then team must require a full
ingredient tool for managing project in future. Sometimes
teams think that if they really need complete ingredient tools
then they will buy a new tool and integrate it to the old tool
that firm already has and using. This prompt buys a device
which is increasingly intricate, costly, and hard to utilize
[11]. As a result, no one can categorize RM tools in good
category and bad category, one can only categorized these
tools by their functionalities. Table 1 is consisting of
different RT tools with their attributes. Developers select
these tools depending upon their needs and the tool that best
suits their work.
highlights; don't incline toward complex, when it isn't
required [23]. Using a consistent and centralized solution to
store all project data because business knowledge base is
frequently changing, and it stops valuable knowledge from
being lost [24]. Independent prerequisite administration
devices have the most highlights however favor it when
application needs long and profound necessity chains of
importance [8]-[21]. With the help of these tool
requirements definitions can be concentrated and focused
and causes that create problems in defining the requirements
etc. providing the money for tools that are for necessity
definition, preparing business experts and client [8].
Some other advantages of RM tools are as bellow:
• Diminution in cost [25].
• Time will be saved during retailing the outcome.
 • Quality of product will be enhanced.
• Trace the links between requirements and other
development assets [25].
• To capture right requirements, collaborate with
stakeholders [26].
• Level of client trust and satisfaction will be
enhanced.
• Structured Requirements [26].
• Useless development and production will be
avoided.
With using RM tools it’s not enough for supplying the
accurate project or it will enhance the probability of
successfulness of service or product. While looking at the
Figure 1: Judgement of Tool
10. CONCLUSION
Tools that are used for requirements management are not
silver bulleting. They are a useful guide to an association
that can have the option to get process and can oversee
responsibilities in a reasonable and reliable way [27].
Analyst of business, managers (product or project),
development team and business clients utilize RM tools to
enhance the effectiveness of their firm RM procedures.
Two factors that plays vital role in choosing RM tools are
project size and team member size allocating to complete
that project. Lightweight RM tools are used by small firms
and small projects that do not have more than 200
requirements. Midweight RM tools are used by middle size
firms and middle projects that do not have more than 200-
2000 requirements. Cost of heavyweight RM tools are very
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benefits of any requirements management tool, remember
what stakeholders are trying to achieve [24].
• It will help in minimizing the bugs.
• It will reduce the silence from requirements.
• Useless development and production will be
avoided.
• It will make traceability of requirements faster.
• It will enhance communication processes among
individuals.
• It will improve the control process of requirements.
high, so these tools are used by larger firms and larger
projects. The performance and courage of heavyweight RM
tools to manage project requirements is better than the other
two categories of tools that is middleweight RM tools and
lightweight RM tools. On the bases of comparison of
different tools with different parameters, fig 1 shows the
estimation. According to this figure Objectiver is the best
tool for requirement management and GMARC is the not
much good among these all-RM Tools.
In addition, traceability matrix is also efficient tool for
requirements management, but it is very useful for small
number of requirements in project. There are many more
tools that exist, providing different features and have
different capabilities. It depends upon the user and project
whether to choose which tool.
 On the bases of above calculations and results of defined onlineon:http://www.seilevel.com/wpcontent/uploads/RequirementsM
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