Tool helps manage requirements when developing software
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Anyone who knows how to use e-mail and Microsoft Word can define software requirements with a tool from Technology Builders Inc. of Atlanta, according to company president Nicholas Kavadellas. TBI's suite eventually will manage the entire development processes to ensure software quality, Kavadellas said. Caliber-Requirements Management is the first tool in the suite.
Anyone who knows how to use e-mail and Microsoft Word can define software requirements
with a tool from Technology Builders Inc. of Atlanta, according to company president
Nicholas Kavadellas.
TBIs suite eventually will manage the entire development processes to ensure
software quality, Kavadellas said. Caliber-Requirements Management is the first tool in
the suite.
The Arthur D. Little consulting company used the Microsoft Windows NT 4.0 tool to
manage requirements for an application prototype it recently completed for the Postal
Service, Kavadellas said. USPS will use the tool to improve verification and acceptance
processes for handling business mail, he said, and the Army and Air Force also have shown
interest.
A second TBI tool, slated for release next year, will help organizations manage
software defects and change requests, tracking them back to the requirements. For
organizations that need to improve their software quality, Kavadellas said, managing the
requirements is the first step.
TBI plans to integrate Caliber-RM with other tools that it builds or acquires in the
next 12 months. The company aims to provide end-to-end control of requirements, use cases,
objects, models and processes up to the final phases of testing and managing defects,
Kavadellas said.
The company will integrate Caliber-RM with TestDirector 5.0 from Mercury Interactive
Inc. of Sunnyvale, Calif., and Select Component Factory from Select Software Tools Inc. of
Irvine, Calif. The full suite will be integrated with Microsoft Project 98.
People want to make sure theyre testing for requirements, not just whether
the code works, Kavadellas said.
Caliber-RM combines Web protocols, Internet discussion threads, Common Object Request
Broker Architecture and Microsoft Visual C++. It uses the object-oriented Versant database
from Versant Object Technology Corp. of Fremont, Calif., as the repository for
requirements and related development information. Requirements by their nature are
perfect parent-children objects, Kavadellas said.
Release 1.1 of Caliber-RM uses Microsoft Word templates to generate updated
specification documents from the requirements repository.
It has access controls to keep contractors, for example, from seeing an agencys
complete requirements document.
Each requirement is an object, and we can secure each requirement down to the
attribute level, Kavadellas said. Caliber-RM provides a full audit log of who made
changes and when, he said.
The $24,990 starter pack includes licenses for one server and 10 seats. Additional seat
licenses are $995.
Contact Technology Builders at 770-937-7900.
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