I am looking for a formal requirements software tool that is based on Microsoft TFS and does not have its own database (I don't want to manage two database and application servers). I have found few tools like IBM Doors and Borland Caliber but they both have their own database. I think it would be best to have only one application server and one database server - ie Team Foundation Server. Any ideas?
Hi Patricia,
A few years ago I was on a project that looked at leveraging the TFS database to manage requirements. We looked at the software packages of the time and didn't find anything that was well suited. We did consider customizing the work item types in TFS to support requirements management but ultimately decided the potential cost of maintaining those customizations through an upgrade of TFS to a new version was too great.
Here are some of the materials we read back then to help us review what was possible:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms195025(v=vs.80).aspx
http://blogs.msdn.com/b/slange/archive/2007/11/06/requirements-management-in-tfs-part-1-of-4-overview.aspx
InteGREAT is a product that wasn't really around back then but has some level of TFS integration (have not reviewed extensively):
http://blogs.msdn.com/b/bharry/archive/2012/05/16/formal-requirements-with-tfs-and-integreat.aspx
Jarett
Hi Patricia/Jarett, I found out from our tools selection committee that based on a RFI they have short listed three ALM solutions: IBM – Doors with Rational Suite – they have a history in ALM space Visual Studio with inteGREAT (as it was recommended by Microsoft) – they are on the top of Gartner’s ALM Magic Quadrant PTC-MKS Have any of worked with any of these solutions? Any input would be great.
Patricia,
INCOSE (International Council on System Engineering) has conducted a comparison of several different requirements management tools - comparison of features, technical environment, etc.
The results (summary across tools and details for each tool) are publicly available in Excel spreadsheet form. This link should bring up the spreadsheet for you (or you can search INCOSE requirements management tool comparison):
http://www.incose.org/productspubs/products/INCOSERMToolSurveyConsolidatedResults.xls
Sandy
At Seilevel we recently did a tools evaluation. We have a couple of blog posts summarizing the methodology and top picks
http://requirements.seilevel.com/blog/2011/12/commenters-choice-seilevel-requirements-management-tool-evaluation-%E2%80%93-part-2.html
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