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10 Best Requirements Management Tools & Software Of 2023

The Best Requirements Management Software

These are the tools at a glance.

  1. Jama Software

    Best requirements management software for enterprises

  2. Visure Requirements

    Best for enterprise requirements management with high-level customization.

  3. Zoho Projects

    Best for ongoing updates, communication, and collaboration

  4. codebeamer

    Best for out-of-the-box and API integrations.

  5. ReQtest

    Best for customizability.

  6. Modern Requirements

    Best rated requirements management software

  7. xebrio

    Best requirements management tool for end-to-end traceability

  8. Perforce Helix RM

    Best for traceability and test case management

  9. Orcanos

    Best for visualization and reporting

  10. Accompa

    Best for ease of implementation and use

Collecting project requirements is an important part of setting up a new project. Although most times it requires a business analyst in your team to help you get the most out of this phase, the reality is different. Most of you are project managers/business analysts/mind readers, and you know that’s never going to change.

Therefore, this post should help you find your perfect sidekick for this process. These tools will help as you collect user stories, set up brainstorming sessions, diagram process flows or put together a requirements traceability matrix.

Finally, some of the requirements tools on this list offer reporting, versioning, and tracking features that will support your review meetings with stakeholders. Discussing why a requirement doesn’t lead to your project objectives and should be scrapped without evidence is not fun. Believe me.

Selection Criteria

Before we get to each tool’s description, it’s important to review the criteria I used in my analysis.

  1. Visuals: This includes all graphical elements of the tool. It can be a menu, how elements are organized in the UI, how the tool displays a UML diagram or process modeling view, etcetera. This is a tool that you’ll be using every day, so it’s better if it’s nice to look at.
  2. Usability: I look at each tool from your perspective as a user. The idea is to see if the tool is easy to use in terms of navigation through the different features. Also, I see how intuitive it is for someone new to the tool.
  3. Integrations: All out-of-box integrations with third-party applications, plus available APIs so you can develop custom connections. I’ll mention some of the relevant tools I think you may be using.
  4. Pricing: I looked at each tool’s pricing structure. I’ll tell you the price at which their paid plans start and any information I find on free trials or free versions of the software.

RM Tools Key Features

Learn about some of the features included in this type of software and get familiar with the terminology.

  1. Requirements management: This includes the ability to define requirements, model relationships between them, reuse requirements, and export/import requirements data for creating requirements documentation.
  2. Document collaboration: Feature that allows your team to co-create documents and engage in conversations during the creation or review process.
  3. Baseline management: This includes tracking baselines, having support for different versions of a document, and tracking those changes. Version management will be especially important to guide conversations with the client on what has changed over time. The more we are in control of the changes, the better.
  4. Traceability and impact analysis: Establishing automatic relationships across requirements is key in requirements management. Traceable requirements and impact analysis include the ability to run test cases. In effect, this allows you to mitigate risks through change management processes when requirements, people, decisions, and timelines inevitably shift during the course of a project.

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requirements management tools logos list

The Best Requirements Management Tools

Here are a few of the best requirements management tools available today. Read on to understand what they offer, how they’re different from the other tools, and what types of organizations and projects they’re best suited for.

1

Jama Software

Best requirements management software for enterprises

Jama Software provides a platform for requirements, risk, and test management. Teams building complex products, systems, and software use Jama Connect to improve cycle times, increase quality, reduce rework, and minimize effort proving compliance.

This enterprise-grade tool offers the ability to accurately capture and communicate requirements, goals, progress, and interdependencies throughout the development process. It enables you to align hardware, firmware, and software development stakeholders; improve efficiency; manage change; and prove compliance.

In Jama Connect’s features, you’ll find end-to-end live traceability of people, data, and processes, as well as real-time impact analysis, reviews, and approvals with team collaboration. For requirements gathering, you can define, organize, and execute requirements-based test plans and test cases to ensure quality and compliance.

All of these features are packed into a software that provides the flexibility to support various engineering disciplines and development methodologies. Pair that with an intuitive, browser-based interface, and you’ve got a comprehensive software that’s still easy to navigate.

You can integrate Jama Connect requirements and test plans with ALM, PLM, QA, and MBSE to ensure full traceability, visibility, and collaboration across the lifecycle.

With API integrations and third-party integration hubs, teams can work in familiar tools while contributing to projects in Jama Connect. Jama Connect licenses are available on a user and floating basis through an annual subscription model.

Pricing and trial information are available upon request.

30-day free trial

Pricing Upon Request

2

Visure Requirements

Best for enterprise requirements management with high-level customization.

Visure provides an easy to use and customized solution for requirements, risk, and test management.

It's a must have tool for teams building complex products, systems and softwares, which require end to end traceability from conception to testing and deployment, along with standard certification compliance. It's one of the most flexible and customizable RM platforms, making it easy for stakeholders to collaborate on simple or complex requirements.

Companies who actively use Visure claim a clear impact with on-time project deliveries, project compliance and decrease in development costs and cycle times.

Visure supports one of the best features for exporting and importing from MS Office, and integrates seamlessly with IBM DOORS, JIRA, Sparx EA, TFS, ReqIF, MATLAB, VectorCAST, and other key tools for system engineering teams. It also supports a wide variety of project types and methodologies including agile, waterfall, and V model.

Other key core features of the platform include: end-to-end traceability from conception to testing and deployment, all the way to source code like Java, C, C++; graphical representation of your workflow (data model) to enforce and protect a full traceability; one-click impact analysis and test management; and AI-driven quality analysis to automatically check the quality of your requirements.

This RM Tool uses natural language processing to apply the best tactics. You can create reusable components, requirements, and test cases to use across teams and projects. You can leverage full Word and Excel integration to easily elicit requirements from non-Visure users.

They provide a premium support, and ready-to-use templates tailored to different industry standards such as ISO 26262, IEC 62304, IEC 61508, CENELEC 50128, DO-178B/C, FMEA, SPICE, and CMMI.

And, last but not least, it offers one of the most affordable enterprise RM platforms in the market today.

You can get a 30 day free trial, and check their competitive pricing upon request.

30 days free trial

Pricing available upon request

3

Zoho Projects

Best for ongoing updates, communication, and collaboration

Zoho Projects is a cloud-based project management solution equipped with features like Kanban boards for organizing work items, Gantt charts for resource planning, resource utilization charts for task allocation, and different dashboards for requirement management, analytics, and reporting, as well as tracking project metrics.

The software helps users plan projects, manage requirements, and optimize resources based on schedule and capacity. One of its main features is the Gantt chart, which allows project managers and stakeholders to properly organize and customize task schedules to suit the team and project requirements. The system can automatically update users regarding critical tasks and processes associated with current and upcoming projects. It can also automatically notify individual users and teams about potential bottlenecks and delays.

Apart from managing project requirements, tasks, and resources, Zoho Projects also provides tools tailored for collaboration and teamwork. Team members can connect online, meet virtually, communicate via chat, discuss through comment sections, and collaborate within documents. The software is also equipped with several tools for issue tracking, portfolio management, and budgeting. Project managers and team leaders can keep track of their staff member’s work hours through the built-in timer or the check-in and out button, right from inside the platform.

Zoho Projects is free for up to three users. Its paid plans start at $5 per user/month for the premium package and $10 for the Enterprise option. A 10-day free trial is available for both subscriptions.

This is an aggregated rating for this tool including ratings from Crozdesk users and ratings from other sites.
4.2 286

10-day free trial

From $5/user/month

4

codebeamer

Best for out-of-the-box and API integrations.

Intland Software’s codebeamer is a full-stack, end-to-end Application Lifecycle Management platform with strong requirements management capabilities. The tool helps manage complexity from requirements to release in the delivery of safety-critical or traditional software and systems-of-systems products.

For developers of advanced products and software, this open platform extends ALM functionalities with product line configuration, and provides unique configurability for complex processes. Align people, workflows, and tools across the parallel streams of product delivery by enabling teams with a flexible, fully integrated, and highly collaborative platform.

codebeamer is a great tool to support engineers looking for traceability, transparency, and efficient collaboration in requirements management. The platform provides gapless traceability to help track interdependencies and the impact of changes throughout the lifecycle. Requirements-based testing is supported out of the box. Use codebeamer to identify, manage, and track requirements across the lifecycle in order to reduce costs, risks, and delivery times in product development.

Custom reporting options, automated change control, and simple approval management help streamline collaboration in high-velocity development environments. For developers of regulated products, Intland’s preconfigured industry templates and domain services help reduce regulatory compliance effort and costs.

The tool integrates with Jira, Microsoft Word, Excel, IBM Rational DOORS, and plenty more. codebeamer is available as an on-premise or cloud-hosted SaaS platform with flexible licensing options to suit the needs of every team. A free 30-day trial is provided. Pricing information is available upon request.

This is an aggregated rating for this tool including ratings from Crozdesk users and ratings from other sites.
4.4 95

30 days free trial

From $125/user/month

5

ReQtest

Best for customizability.

If you’re looking for a tool that’s easy to implement, access, and learn to use, ReQtest should be at the top of your list. It’s a fully cloud-based tool that you can access from anywhere, with a friendly, transparent pricing model that intentionally accommodates small, agile, and scaling teams (as well as large organizations) with a “pay for what you use” approach.

ReQtest offers a complete suite of useful requirements management tools as well as features designed for agile requirements gathering. These include test management tools, bug tracking, and visual bug reporting tools, end-to-end requirements traceability, easy data export to Excel, collaboration features, and agile task boards.

This is a lightweight but effective solution that works well if you’re happy with a stand-alone tool (ReQtest has two-way sync with Jira, but no other pre-built integrations) and have no need for it to perform the functions of a full QMS or ALM system.

Overall, it’s one of the most affordably-priced solutions out there. It starts at $10/user/month, making it a low-risk introductory solution, especially for organizations that are using a requirements management tool for the first time.

This is an aggregated rating for this tool including ratings from Crozdesk users and ratings from other sites.
4.8 3

10 days free trial

From $10/user/month

6

Modern Requirements

Best rated requirements management software

Modern Requirements offers a 4DevOps tool as a single-application solution for everything requirements management. The easy to use tools are built directly into Microsoft’s Azure DevOps, and allow you to create, automate, manage, analyze, and report requirements straight from your Azure DevOps project.

Modern Requirements4DevOps eliminates duplicate work, creates requirements reusability, and connects your requirements directly to your assets. You can build living requirements documents, diagrams, mockups, use case models, and other assets that are updated automatically as requirements change.

The tool also includes a built-in approval process (with e-signatures), easy to create baselines, and always up-to-date trace matrices. This solution allow teams to connect requirements to both development tasks and quality assurance testing for full traceability throughout the project lifecycle.

Built directly into Microsoft’s Azure DevOps, Modern Requirements provides a simple to use interface with the options to toggle off any features that might not be used by a given user. Modern Requirements also has a free guided bootcamp to help walk users through each of the offered tools, as well as professional training and support services at the implementation phase.

Modern Requirements is fully embedded with Microsoft’s Azure DevOps and provides your team with the opportunity to turn your new and existing projects into a single source of truth. They also offer full integrations through their Sync Bridge with all of the common tools.

Licenses are available on a User and Floating basis, and can be purchased as a perpetual license or through a subscription model.

Pricing information available upon request. Free 30-day trial available.

30 days free trial

Pricing upon request

7

xebrio

Best requirements management tool for end-to-end traceability

Xebrio is a complete requirements management ecosystem that empowers teams to communicate with one another while gathering, analyzing, and finalizing requirements.

Additionally, it covers the entire project development lifecycle from requirements to releases. Xebrio’s requirement workflow allows all stakeholders to actively participate during the requirement gathering process and has an approval mechanism to ensure collective consensus.

Xebrio facilitates mapping requirements to tasks, milestones, test cases, and bugs. These requirements can then be traced to releases for end-to-end traceability. Some key features of the tool include requirements version tracking and version traceability, and real-time collaboration for requirements gathering.

Xebrio’s other significant features include task management, test coverage, milestone tracking, and bug tracking. It also supports document collaboration, time-tracking, and reporting.

In essence, Xebrio is a requirements management ecosystem with built-in project management features.

Xebrio has special pricing for startups and small teams, starting from as low as $1/user/month with a 10-user minimum. Paid plans for bigger teams start at $10/user/month and offer a 14-day free trial.

14-day free trial

From $2/user/month with a 10-user minimum

8

Perforce Helix RM

Best for traceability and test case management

Perforce’s Helix RM software is offered as a stand-alone module in their ALM (Application Lifecycle Management) suite, a product widely used among top-tier organizations.

This requirements management tool is scalable and can handle large files—it’s a great fit for large, distributed teams. Perforce has also gained a great reputation for responsive and effective customer support.

Helix RM offers a full suite of useful features, including a better offering of graphical tools than your average requirements management tool.

These include real-time collaboration features (comments, approval management, and easy file exports), impact analysis tools, requirements traceability, and test case management, file history graphs and even a time-lapse tool to visualize an item’s progress over time.

Helix resource management also stands out for its integrations—a two-way sync with Jira, as well as integrations with various Microsoft products, Slack, Eclipse, GitHub, Go2Group, Rational DOORS, and OpsHub.

Overall, Helix RM is a powerful tool, but it does take time to set up, implement, and learn to use it effectively. The good news is that they offer a wide variety of resources like video tutorials, training, and a comprehensive knowledge base to simplify the learning curve.

Perforce Helix RM costs from $179/month.

Pricing Upon Request

9

Orcanos

Best for visualization and reporting

The Orcanos requirements management tool offers some better visualization and reporting features than others. This includes real-time dashboards that are intuitive to navigate, as well as their DocGen feature for importing/exporting Word files to easily create a software requirements doc, aided by custom templates and embedded reports.

Orcanos delivers all of your essential requirements tools—end-to-end traceability, some basic collaboration features (messaging, alerts), and test management features. Additionally, users have praised Orcanos for their responsive customer support.

Overall, this is an especially good tool if you’re eventually going to require a full QMS (Quality Management System) or ALM (Application Lifecycle Management)—with this tool, it’s simply a matter of upgrading your plan to gain access to ALM or QMS features for risk assessment, quality control, customer complaint management, etc.

The only downside of this tool is its lack of pre-built integrations (it does integrate with Zapier, however). The pricing plan could also be friendlier—they do offer free 30-day trials, but their basic plan requires a minimum of 5 users (at $69/month each), so it’s not the best fit for smaller organizations.

Orcanos costs from $69/user/month.

Free demo available

Pricing upon request

10

Accompa

Best for ease of implementation and use

Accompa stands out among the crowd, not necessarily for its features but for its overall ease of use, ease of implementation, friendly pricing/payment model, and great customer service.

That said, Accompa doesn’t have the most robust feature set out there. They add new features on a continuous basis, but if you need something comprehensive in the here and now, I’d look to big players like Jama or Rational DOORS. In most cases, however, I wouldn’t be scared off by Accompa’s lack of features.

This solution does offer a truly useful collection of essential features (or else they wouldn’t be on this list!), and these include requirements traceability, automatic change and dependency tracking for impact analysis, discussion boards and alerts for collaboration, and requirements prioritization rules. It also offers some customization, such as custom fields, views, and user roles.

Another advantage of this tool: an above-average set of pre-built integrations, including Jira, FogBugz, HP Quality Center, IBM Rational, IBM Rational ClearQuest, Bugzilla, trac, VersionOne, Rally, Agilefant, Seapine Software, SmartBear, and VisualStudio Team Foundation Server.

Accompa costs from $199/month.

30 day free trial

From $199/month

Need expert help selecting the right Requirements Management Software?

We’ve joined up with Crozdesk.com to give all our readers (yes, you!) access to Crozdesk’s software advisors. Just use the form below to share your needs, and they will contact you at no cost or commitment. You will then be matched and connected to a shortlist of vendors that best fit your company, and you can access exclusive software discounts!

The Best Requirements Management Tools Summary

The chart below provides a basic summary of the top requirements management tools included in this review. Get a snapshot of each tool’s basic pricing info, trial info, and overall quality score, and then read a detailed review of each tool below.

Tool Free Option Price
1
Jama Software

Best requirements management software for enterprises

30-day free trial

Pricing Upon Request Visit Website
2
Visure Requirements

Best for enterprise requirements management with high-level customization.

30 days free trial

Pricing available upon request Visit Website
3
Zoho Projects

Best for ongoing updates, communication, and collaboration

10-day free trial

From $5/user/month Visit Website
4
codebeamer

Best for out-of-the-box and API integrations.

30 days free trial

From $125/user/month Visit Website
5
ReQtest

Best for customizability.

10 days free trial

From $10/user/month Visit Website
6
Modern Requirements

Best rated requirements management software

30 days free trial

Pricing upon request Visit Website
7
xebrio

Best requirements management tool for end-to-end traceability

14-day free trial

From $2/user/month with a 10-user minimum Visit Website
8
Perforce Helix RM

Best for traceability and test case management

Not available

Pricing Upon Request Visit Website
9
Orcanos

Best for visualization and reporting

Free demo available

Pricing upon request Visit Website
10
Accompa

Best for ease of implementation and use

30 day free trial

From $199/month Visit Website

Other Requirements Management Tools List

I haven’t had time to fully review these, but if the software featured in this review doesn’t make the cut, here a few more good requirement gathering tools to check out:

  1. IBM Engineering Requirements Management DOORS Next

    Best for engineering requirements management

  2. Caliber

    Best for storyboards and simulations

  3. ClickUp

    Create documents and lists that can store your requirements and remain visible to all stakeholders throughout the project

  4. Wrike

    Best for cross-departmental collaboration

  5. Doc Sheets

    Best intuitive enterprise requirements management software

  6. ReqSuite® RM

    Best for quick startup and high level of customization

What Is RM?

Requirements Management (RM) is the continuous process of gathering, documenting, analyzing, tracking, and agreeing on project requirements. It also entails communicating with stakeholders so we can be aligned on priorities and which requirements should stay or go.

The end goal of RM is to operate with clear, realistic, and agreed-upon requirements.

What Are Requirements Management Tools?

Requirements management tools are any tools that help you remove ambiguity from this process - assumptions, wishful thinking, gray areas, interpretations - from a project’s requirements. You use these tools throughout the development process so you can easily test a product or project to ensure it does what it’s supposed to do.

The software you use will depend on the project methodology, goals or complexity of the project. Either way, make sure you learn how your team’s terminology for requirements. Some teams use other words, such as user story, product requirement, or feature.

Let’s break down the project complexity.

Basic Requirements Tools

For very basic requirements management planning, you might simply use a spreadsheet or an MS word document template to fill in your requirements documentation.

However, these documents can become problematic. In this case, you rely heavily on individuals to update the documents, and it takes time and effort to ensure you're working with the most recent version across teams.

Further, managing feedback in a central place becomes a challenge. Often, you have to manage strings of emails and in-person feedback that must be inputted manually into your documentation.

Complex Requirements Tools

In more complex requirement management planning, your tool might be an entire software system for managing the relationships between requirements, analyzing the impact of any changes, managing approvals, and more.

If this is your situation, you will benefit from using one of the tools on this list as they have a range of features to support your requirements-gathering process.

requirements-management-tools-infographic-2

Why Requirements Management Tools Are Important

In our real-world projects, we deal with far too many of those “he said, she said” situations where malformed or vague requirements end up tanking our projects and tarnishing our business relationships. Sometimes the task of requirements documentation falls to a project manager or someone with limited technical proficiency and domain knowledge—they have to cost out a software development project, for example, but they don’t have a ton of experience actually developing software.

And let’s not forget that documenting requirements is simply a tedious task—no one actually wants to spend their time creating (or reading) a 100-page printout of an Excel spreadsheet. Even something as seemingly simple as planning requirements for an online store with no physical inventory can become very complicated.

As project management expert Kelly Suter explained in her complete guide to gathering requirements: “When budgets are thin, timelines are tight, and scope is creeping, requirements documentation tends to be the first deliverable to go and the last deliverable to be considered.”
Thankfully, there are tools that make managing requirements easier. They help you track, test, analyze, visualize requirements, and communicate to stakeholders.

How To Pick The Best Tool For Your Team?

All things considered, learning to use and implement a requirements management tool is an investment of time and energy. Before you dive in, you want to ensure that you’re choosing the ideal fit for your projects.

I simplify the process by providing you with some of the most important questions I think you can ask during the selection process in order to narrow down the options.

requirements-management-tools-infographic-1

What do you need it for?

Do you need something that’s one step up from Google Docs and a spreadsheet, or are you looking for an enterprise-grade tool that can support large volumes of data and distributed teams? Do you need additional functionalities such as task management, risk management, or the ability to create mockups? Will you be using the software specifically for software testing?

In general, here’s a basic division of the software on this list to get you started: More lightweight requirements management software includes ReQtest, Accompa, ReqSuite, and Pearls.

More robust requirements management software includes Rational Doors, Perforce Helix RM, Orcanos, and Jama Software. Middle of the road? Look to Modern Requirements4DevOps (built for Azure DevOps) and Caliber.

Do you want to buy a license or access cloud-based software?

Most requirements documentation software offers the selection between a cloud-based service and an on-premise installation. With this in mind, however, there are several completely cloud-based tools such as AccompaReQtest, and Orcanos. Consider your ability to host a solution on-premise. As a result, you’ll be able to narrow down the options significantly.

How easy is it to implement and learn?

A couple of factors contribute to how easy a solution is to learn and implement. Consider:

  • Cloud-based or on-premise? See above. Right off the bat, a cloud-based Saas will be quicker to implement than an on-premise solution.
  • Availability of training and support? If you expect your team to require some training and ongoing support, look to requirements management tools that have received praise for their above-average training and support: Rational Doors, ReqSuite, Accompa, Orcanos, and Perforce Helix RM.
  • Pre-built integrations? The tools with the largest number of pre-existing integrations (by far!) are Jama, Accompa, and Perforce Helix RM. If you’re looking to cut down on implementation with a tool that plays nicely with your existing development and business tools, those should be at the top of your list.

What Do You Think?

I believe our community is stronger if we all pitch in. Now that you’ve seen this list, please share in the comments below if you have any tools you would like to see added to it, your experiences gathering requirements, or any piece of advice for the rest of us.

If instead, you want to receive advice from us, you should subscribe to the Insider Membership newsletter. We will deliver advice on project management, fun stories, reflections, and more to your email every week.

By Ben Aston

I’m Ben Aston, a digital project manager and founder of thedpm.com. I've been in the industry for more than 15 years working in the UK at London’s top digital agencies including Dare, Wunderman, Lowe and DDB. I’ve delivered everything from film to CMS', games to advertising and eCRM to eCommerce sites. I’ve been fortunate enough to work across a wide range of great clients; automotive brands including Land Rover, Volkswagen and Honda; Utility brands including BT, British Gas and Exxon, FMCG brands such as Unilever, and consumer electronics brands including Sony.

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8 Comments

  • It is extremely crucial to carefully monitor all facts during software development. We should have project-related information and a step-by-step plan for developing software.

    Reply

  • Nice and elaborate article. Congratulations. I missed comments about how friendly-user are those tools. I believe fully customizable and taylorable tools are good, but how difficult would that be to make it happen effectively in a timely manner, using x-ref matrices, HID and other devices useful for RM? How many of them have good examples for implementation of RM models in daily-basis duties? Or, would tha be too laborious to come-up with the RM models on our own? How many of them have good on-line training material?

    Reply

  • A really excellent article, which stands out for the clear language and thoughtful examples of the appeal of each of these options. Thank you!

    Reply

  • Nice Article. I have worked with a few tools on the list over the years but ReqSuite is definitely the best one. Easy to use, lightweight, perfectly customizable and really nice assistance features to improve quality of the rquirements.

    Reply

  • Great article! It was very helpful. Do you have information on SPEC Innovations' Innoslate. It's a MBSE and RM tool.

    Reply

  • Hi, Tnx for your article. it was very useful for me. VISURE Requirement management it's another tools for RM. Do you have any information about this features & functionality?

    Reply

  • Where is Siemens PLM' Polarion?

    Reply

  • Nice article! I loved that you gave directions to select the best fitting tool for the problem. (not just a list of tools). I'd like to add one more tool, which is lightweight, but meets with all the criteria. https://storiesonboard.com/requirements-management-software.html

    Reply

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