Value-Based Selection of Requirements Engineering Tool Support

In large software and systems engineering companies like Siemens PSE there are several requirements tools in use. There is no "one tool fits all projects/departments" solution for requirements engineering due to the variety of departments and project types. Thus, project managers and requirements engineers usually face the problem of selecting the most suitable tool sets available for their given situation. In this paper, we report on a value-based requirements tool selection approach developed at PSE that helps to find the optimal tool support. This selection is based on rating the value contribution of suitably-defined tool features for the given project context. We conducted an initial feasibility study with a number of typical requirements tools at PSE. Main results were: the approach is straight-forward and seems to be a good means for project managers to compare requirements tools and select the most valuable tool for a particular project