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Requirment specification tool for small scale projets (free and open source)

SylvanoMTL

Good afternoon, 

I am trying to formalise my work as part of a new role in a new company. The role was vacant for a long time and there is not much structure around me. I am trying my best to manage projects and avoid scope creeps by drafting requirements based on the discussions I have with my internal customers. Discussions are very often fuzzy and it is not rare that after a month, something comes up on the table, because the internal customer only formulated his wish orally in a corridor and thought I accounted on his comments. My background is very generalist, and  I am looking for a low cost, easy to use solution, that can be understood by a wide range of staff. I guess that if money and time were not an issue I would onboard using IBM rational DOORS, but price is too prohibitive.

I have tried to share the spreadsheets that contains the requirements, but this is always ignored. Also the use of the spreadsheet is not convenient and quite segregated from my other working tools.

I am doing mostly hardware design, but also some software.

I am therefore looking for a software solution that would:

1) help to capture the requirement specifications

2) allow to share the requirements with the customer

3) Have a freeze of the requirement, agreed with the customer.

4) Have a validation plan

5) Have some compatibility with other project management tools (e.g. MS Project)

6) Ideally open source and maintained

7) Ideally Free, or small fee license

Do you have any suggestions?

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  • I hope that, by now, you have realised your problem isn't the lack of a tool but it's the lack of a process.I don't know how much experience you have in project management so forgive me if this is too basic.

    Reading between the lines of your post it looks as though you have found yourself managing projects in an organisation that doesn't run projects with any formality. I suggest you take an afternoon to write yourself a simple project lifecycle. The post by Gianni Cessel below is a good start. Change it to reflect your organisation and the people with whom you will be working. Write up the lifecycle as a presentation and then run it past a few trusted colleagues for comments an feedback. Don't forget to include a simple requirements process and also a project change process. Then walk to talk - start to manage your projects according to your lifecycle. You'll be surprised how others will soon fall in line.

    I would recommend you buy a copy of the Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK (R) Guide) (PMBOK® Guide) It's on Amazon (UK) for about £37 and will give you plenty of ideas. It's a bit dry but don't let that put you off.

    Software tools are just a way of making processed tangible and as has been pointed out spreadsheets, documents and presentations are a much simpler way to go. However, if you really want a software tool, take a look at Redmine (https://www.redmine.org/) You'll need a PC or small server to host it. You'll also have to configure it to suit your needs but it is free.

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  • I hope that, by now, you have realised your problem isn't the lack of a tool but it's the lack of a process.I don't know how much experience you have in project management so forgive me if this is too basic.

    Reading between the lines of your post it looks as though you have found yourself managing projects in an organisation that doesn't run projects with any formality. I suggest you take an afternoon to write yourself a simple project lifecycle. The post by Gianni Cessel below is a good start. Change it to reflect your organisation and the people with whom you will be working. Write up the lifecycle as a presentation and then run it past a few trusted colleagues for comments an feedback. Don't forget to include a simple requirements process and also a project change process. Then walk to talk - start to manage your projects according to your lifecycle. You'll be surprised how others will soon fall in line.

    I would recommend you buy a copy of the Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK (R) Guide) (PMBOK® Guide) It's on Amazon (UK) for about £37 and will give you plenty of ideas. It's a bit dry but don't let that put you off.

    Software tools are just a way of making processed tangible and as has been pointed out spreadsheets, documents and presentations are a much simpler way to go. However, if you really want a software tool, take a look at Redmine (https://www.redmine.org/) You'll need a PC or small server to host it. You'll also have to configure it to suit your needs but it is free.

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