PROJECT PLANNING/MANAGEMENT TECHNOLOGY REVIEW - SECTION SUMMARY

SECTION: Requirements Management

Copyright (c) 2000 Jim Salmons and Frank Castellucci
All Rights Reserved

Associated project: "Specification Writing for Web-based
		    Project Planning Software" (sXc ID: 24)

Project URL: http://sohodojo.com/techsig/project-planning-project.html

sXc Project detail: http://sourcexchange.com/ProjectDetail?projectID=24

Project coordination: SourceXchange

Sponsors: Opendesk.com and Collab.Net

Core Team: Jim Salmons and Frank Castellucci


1 Introduction

	This document aggregates the feature and underlying model analyses of
comparable products and services in the domain of the project specification
requirements. During the comparables analysis phase, nine product and service
offerings were examined.

1.1 Format and Key to Abbreviations

	Each of fourteen sections of the Comparables Analysis Data Capture
Outline has a Section Summary file such as this one. Section 1 of each data
collection form is an Introduction statement explaining the project and the
assessment. Section 16 is a reviewer profile. Since all data was produced by the
core project team members, section 16 does not have a summary section.
	
	In a Section Summary file, we aggregate the analysis data within each
subsection of the raw data collection forms. Each data point from the raw
assessment outlines is presented in the following alphabetical order and
prefixed with the following identifying abbreviations:
	
	EN - Enact Enterprise System 4.2 by Netmosphere/CriticalPath
	EP - eProject Express by eProject.com, Inc.
	FT - FastTrack Schedule 6.04 by AEC Software Inc.
	MP - ManagePro 4.0 by Performance Solutions Technology LLC
	MS - MS Project 2000 by Microsoft Corporation
	OD - Opendesk.com by HBE Software
	SF - SourceForge by SourceForge (VA Linux)
	WP - WebProject by Novient
	XC - X-Community by X Collaboration Software Corp.

	The aggregated section data in each Section Summary file is the last
section of the file. In addition to the aggregated data, each summary file has
an optional section for the capture of summary insights or comments.

1.2 Section Summary Insights and/or Comments


====== SECTION SUMMARY DATA ======


9 Requirements Management

9.1 Documentation Controls

** EN **
	Does not address this function.

** EP **
	The Documents storage system provides change notification and
permission-based restricted access. But there are no active change management.

** FT **
	Not applicable.

** MP **
	The Goal/Subgoal composition of ManagePro maps nicely to the development
and management of requirements-oriented data within a project. To the extent
that data within the ManagePro database can be 'source data' in the requirements
document(s) to be produced, the Archive feature provides back-up and a snapshot
versioning capability for requirements data. The 'Show to' and 'Editors'
attributes for Goal/Subgoal/To-Do elements provides control of read/write access
to requirements data. When external documents are required to capture or present
requirements data, the file attachment facility can be used.

** MS **
	Functionality not support in tool.

** OD **
	Functionality does not exist per se, although the user private files are
backed up.

** SF **
	While a Documentation Manager function has recently been added to
SourceForge, there is no relationship (other than subjectively defined by the
project team) to requirements engineering.

** WP **
	While WebProject provides documentation management for the web
presentation of the company or project, it is not specific to managing
Requirement Engineering documentation as there is no explicit function or
methodology in the software.

** XC **
	See section 6.3 for comments about revision controls. When the
Information Unit features are used for requirements management, the version
control features would be very helpful.


9.2 Relationship to Task Management

** EN **
	Does not address this function.

** EP **
	Not applicable.

** FT **
	Not applicable.

** MP **
	Since the 'data cloud of what gets done by whom' is a composition of
'Goal/Subgoal/To-Do' elements, requirements-oriented data is modeled, captured
and maintained simply as another 'branch' of Goal/Subgoal data within the
database.
	
	ManagePro has a 'paste linked item' feature that allows a subgoal
elements to 'live' within an arbitrary logical decomposition within the Goal
hierarchy while having a 'mirrored image' of that item show up in other places
within the Goal hierarchy. This feature can be very helpful for creating
'Requirements Satisfaction' views which present Goal data in the context of
their Requirements.

** MS **
	Functionality not support in tool.

** OD **
	Not applicable.

** SF **
	Functionality does not exist.

** WP **
	Functionality does not exist.

** XC **
	None explicitly. However, if you were to create a Whiteboard
Requirements hierarchy, the basic Task associations would be available. So the
Requirements Management portion of your project would have the same features are
other portions of a Project.


9.3 Implementation Specific Rules

** EN **
	Does not address this function.

** EP **
	Not applicable.

** FT **
	Not applicable.

** MP **
	As before with proposal-management related rules, customizations which
implement User's refinement of the default ManagePro configuration apply to the
entire database open at the time. You cannot have multiple projects open in
ManagePro that implement project-specific customizations.

** MS **
	Functionality not support in tool.

** OD **
	Not applicable.

** SF **
	Functionality does not exist.

** WP **
	Functionality does not exist.

** XC **
	No.


9.4 Business Processing Rules

** EN **
	Does not address this function.

** EP **
	Not applicable.

** FT **
	Not applicable.

** MP **
	As before with proposal-management related rules, customizations which
implement User's refinement of the default ManagePro configuration apply to the
entire database open at the time. You cannot have multiple projects open in
ManagePro that implement project-specific business rule customizations.

** MS **
	Functionality not support in tool.

** OD **
	Not applicable.

** SF **
	Functionality does not exist.

** WP **
	Functionality does not exist.

** XC **
	No.


9.5 Reviewer Comments

** EN **
	None

** EP **
	None

** FT **
	None

** MP **
	None

** MS **
	None

** OD **
	None

** SF **
	None

** WP **
	None

** XC **
	None


DOCUMENT HISTORY

Version 0.9 - Draft
Version 1.0 - Final
 
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