In its 2014 research report: “Market Guide for Software Requirements Definition and Management Solutions,” Gartner confirms the importance of requirements management tools, emphasizes the need to improve them, and provides guidance for boosting their quality.
It acknowledges that poor requirements continue to contribute significantly to project rework and friction between business and IT stakeholders.
It also reveals what it believes is a major reason organizations still struggle with requirements quality: Organizations haven’t adopted appropriate tools to support high-quality requirements definition and management practices.
Market adoption of requirements tools is low, despite the known high cost of poor requirements.
Why You Need Tools to Improve Requirements
Gartner recognizes that robust and better requirements definition and management tools can improve productivity and quality for good reason.
While tools for developers and testers are mature and have been broadly adopted, Business Analysts have long relied on Microsoft Word and Excel or archaic requirements engineering tools to manage requirements. They’ve had no choice, because strong, purpose-built, and better requirements management tools didn’t exist until recently.
Today, Business Analysts have much better options. Modern requirements tools empower them to rapidly elicit, define, and manage high-quality requirements using a flexible toolkit of features and artifacts.
A robust requirements tool, like Blueprint, gives Business Analysts the capabilities they need to:
- Enrich textual requirements with visual models, including process models, user stories, and wireframes, improving understanding and business-IT alignment.
- Automatically generate user stories and test cases, accelerating delivery and improving quality.
- Establish precise traceability between requirements artifacts, boosting analysis and change management capabilities.
- Collaborate easily with business stakeholders and development teams, improving alignment and understanding.
- Centralize and reuse requirements, improving consistency, quality, and speed across teams and projects.
- Use one tool for Agile and traditional methodologies, streamlining delivery and enhancing the potential of reuse.
Business Analysts finally have the productivity tool they need to collaborate robustly with business and IT to deliver high-quality requirements.
It’s about time.
A Modern Requirements Tool Benefits the Whole Team
Business stakeholders benefit from adoption of a tool like Blueprint. They can work directly in the tool as active collaborators and requirements developers. They can receive requirements documentation in formats they are comfortable with, like documents and web pages. They can digest information and provide valuable feedback easily in a way that works for them.
Developers and testers gain the advantage of receiving more complete, consumable requirements in their own toolsets where they can process them easily. They can also provide input and ask questions from within their work environments without needing to log in to a different system. Auto-generation of user stories, acceptance criteria, and test cases lightens their load substantially.
It’s Time to Invest in a Modern Requirements Tool
If your organization hasn’t moved from the Microsoft-centric world of requirements definition and management, now is the time. A modern requirements tool bridges the gap between business and IT and helps teams deliver better software faster.
Today’s better requirements management tools have proven their value. With a clear understanding of the high cost of poor requirements, the value proposition of the investment is clear.
As a company with an industry-leading requirements management software platform, Blueprint understands the challenges associated with developing high-quality requirements. Contact us today for more information.
