Story-Wall: A Concept for Lightweight Requirements Management

Most commercial requirements management tools are costly, document-driven and used by organizations undertaking traditional forms of software development. While not immediately in the spirit of agile, which advocates live dialogue over documentation and encourages developers to do the simplest thing possible, there are some practices supported by these tools that also play a role in more agile forms of software development. This work examines the requirements management needs that are common to software development of all flavors. The session will illustrate a concept designed to bring lightweight requirements management to the agile context and seek interactive feedback from RE'07 participants. The concept is based on experiences of agile development within ibm.com and on the transition from handling paper-based story cards to the use of first generation story management tools. The prototype and its validation is work in progress.