Hi,

Has anybody come across any issues/problems while using any tool like Rational Rose, Rational Requisite pro,Enterprise architect etc.

Thanks

We use RequisitePro in my company and it has a number of bugs and annoyances. This is only a few examples, we have plenty more:

• The tool integrates with Microsoft Word and uses a database backend to store the requirements. Often the Word docs become out of synch with the database because they have to be saved a special way through the Reqpro Toolbar and getting them back in synch can be a nightmare when they aren't.
• In a previous version, requirement docs would mysteriously vanish from Reqpro if you closed or saved the word document incorrectly (IBM has fixed this issue but it still scares us). Make sure you are backing up the server each night.
• If your requirement documents are written in a table format (such as a use case), you have to be careful when tagging the requirement document because it will often complain you've already tagged something that hasn't been tagged.
• Microsoft Word converts ordinary characters (such as quotation marks and apostrophes) into 'special' characters that only word recognizes. You must turn off this feature in Word (which Reqpro does not tell you) or when you save, the back-end database stores symbol characters in their place. This has all sorts of issues including being asked to enter a change comment when no changes were made.
• Reqpro is VERY slow over a large network and almost unusable through VPN.
• There is no easy way to publish documents or version through Reqpro other than opening each document and manually saving or buying another of IBM's rational tools.
• Only word documents can be stored. No excel, PowerPoint, ms project, Visio, etc.

There are more headaches using Reqpro in my opinion than it is worth. The only value I've seen in my organization is the integration with Quality Center that allows us to import requirements for test case traceability. We are actually shopping for a new requirement management tool because of the overhead reqpro brings.