An integrated approach to support the Requirement Management (RM) tool customization for a collaborative scenario

Requirement management represents one of the key process in the complex product life cycle because it is involved not only at the beginning, but also in the further phases where the definition of the technical specifications sometimes implicates requirements tradeoff due to conflicts. For this reason the role of RM tools and methodologies, that normally represents a stand-alone solution, has to change and to be more integrated in the Product Lifecycle Management platform. At present a real shared integrated RM solution doesn’t exist and for this reason it is necessary to provide a framework for supporting the customization of the available RM solutions for catching the real and specific company needs in this new collaborative scenario. For this reason this paper presents a methodical approach that incorporates user-centered design principles into the customization process of the tool. It permits to be adopted in each possible company scenario thanks to its ability to catch the company specific needs and further identifying the right features for the company. The proposed methodology puts the user, rather than the system, at the center of the process because the RM solution could be considered effective only if it is able to save time and money in the data management by users. Moreover, this tool assessment method can help organizations efficiently determine candidate tools, to understand what is important in that organization and to make a tool selection customized for their needs. The case study on Requirement Management tools as Part of Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) Solution is presented.