EU 7: Tool Support

Official Reference

IREB CPRE-FL Syllabus v3.3.0 — Educational Unit 7 (L2, 1 hour) Download syllabus

Exam weight: ~4.3% of points (2 questions, 3 points). Know the three categories of tool support and the key considerations for introducing tools.

7.1 Tools in Requirements Engineering (L1)

The RE process can be supported by tools that cover dedicated tasks and activities. Since the RE process is quite individual (EU 5), existing RE tools often focus only on certain aspects and rarely support all activities.

Before selecting a tool, Requirements Engineers should decide which tasks and activities should be supported and how.

Three Categories of Tool Support

1. Management of requirements:

• Defining and storing requirements attributes
• Prioritizing requirements
• Managing versions and configurations
• Tracking and tracing requirements
• Managing changes to requirements

2. Management of the RE process:

• Measuring and reporting on the RE process
• Measuring and reporting on product quality
• Managing the RE workflow

3. Documentation of knowledge about the requirements:

• Sharing requirements
• Creating shared understanding of the requirements
• Modeling of requirements
• Collaboration in RE
• Testing/simulation of requirements

Tools often provide a mixture of these features. To ensure all RE tasks are covered, different tools might need to be combined.

Key Point

General-purpose tools (office or issue tracking tools) are sometimes used for requirements, but they have limitations and should only be used when the RE process is in control and requirements are aligned and quite stable.

7.2 Introducing Tools (L2)

Selecting an RE tool is no different from selecting a tool for any other purpose: the goal, context, and requirements must be described before selection can be successful.

An appropriate tool can only be sought once proper RE procedures and techniques have been introduced. Tool introduction requires clear RE responsibilities and procedures.

Key Considerations for Tool Introduction

Consideration	Why It Matters
All life cycle costs beyond license costs	Maintenance, training, migration, and integration costs can exceed license costs
Necessary resources	People, time, and infrastructure needed for adoption
Pilot projects to avoid risks	Test the tool in a limited scope before full rollout
Evaluation according to defined criteria	Systematic comparison against requirements ensures the right choice

A company considering an enterprise RE tool should first establish sound RE practices, then evaluate tools against criteria like: Does it support our traceability needs? Can it integrate with our existing ALM tools? What is the total cost of ownership over 5 years? A pilot project with one team can reveal adoption challenges before a company-wide rollout.

Practice Quiz

Practice Quiz

Q1. According to the syllabus, what should Requirements Engineers decide BEFORE selecting a tool?

AThe budget allocated for tool licenses

BWhich tasks and activities during the RE process should be supported and how

CWhich programming language the development team will use

DHow many stakeholders will use the tool

Q2. The syllabus differentiates between three categories of tool support. Which is NOT one of them?

AManagement of requirements

BManagement of the RE process

CDocumentation of knowledge about the requirements

DAutomated generation of source code from requirements