Missing Piece

I’ve blogged a bit about requirement tools and mentioned the fact that my company had been investigating potential requirements definition and management tools. During our evaluation process a few months ago, we invited folks to demonstrate both of the main IBM offerings: Rational Requisite Pro, and recently acquired (formerly Telelogic) Doors.

At that early stage, the newly converted Telelogic folks weren’t sure what the future of the Doors product would be, and highlighted the fact that Doors actually has the largest share of the requirements management tool market. The IBM folks were equally unsure or maybe tight-lipped on what the future may hold for both products.

Because I find the  acquisition interesting, and because I’m interested in the industry as a whole, I thought I’d share a recent article I came across that shows that IBM has made some progress in determining how they’ll leverage both products. In the E-Week article, IBM Integrates Telelogic Tools into Rational Fold,

In the requirements management arena, the acquisition brings together Telelogic’s Doors tool with IBM’s Rational RequisitePro. Doors, Tavassoli said, is popular among users developing systems with complex IT requirements, such as those imposed by compliance mandates. RequisitePro, he said, is more useful in the software space, where processes are less formal.

It will be interesting to see how both products morph and change now that Doors is also under the IBM/Rational umbrella. Anyway, there is more in the article on some of the planned interface changes, rationale for the acquisition, potential synergies, etc. I’d encourage you to check it out in it’s entirety.

I’d sure be interested to hear from users of either of these tools. What does the integration of Doors into the Rational toolset mean to you? What types of changes do you expect? Do you have the scoop on any further convergence in the requirements definition/management space?