Note: This blog has been expanded into a new blog: Features an SE Tool Set Should Have.

I have seen several ask the question “Which Requirement Management Tool (RMT) is best?” I say it depends on what you need – one size doesn’t fit all. What you need depends on your domain, processes, and specific project. So the better question is “Which RMT will best meet our needs?” To answer this, you need to meet with your team and applicable organizational stakeholders and address this question – just like you should do for any product. Out of this will come use cases, user stories, etc., that will allow you to write a set of requirements for the RMT that best meets your needs.

To start this off, features and functions I consider essential to any (RMT) are :

1. Allows the customer to customize the tool to the customer’s domain, culture, and process. (With minimum help from the vendor.)
2. Supports requirement best practices.
3. Supports the key concepts of allocation and traceability as well as documenting interface definitions and the corresponding interface requirements.
4. Allows the user to easily define what attributes the user wants to include for their requirements.
5. Supports the entire life cycle of the product development, from scope definition, to requirement definition, design, verification, and validation.
6. Allows the customer to define their workflow within the tool.
7. Provides robust configuration management of the customer’s requirements and requirement set.
8. Includes a robust report feature to help better manage product development.
9. Has a familiar web interface making it easy to use with a small learning curve.
10. Supports collaboration among the users within the tool.

I expect all of this as well as the RMT must be affordable for my project.

So, what are the top ten features you feel a Requirement Management Tool (RMT) should  have to meet your needs?”