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Powerful Requirements Management Platform
September 20, 2016

Powerful Requirements Management Platform

Anonymous | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User

Overall Satisfaction with Serena Dimensions RM

Serena RM is used for managing requirements. It allows centralized management and visibility of requirements across IT and the business, allowing users to track what stage of the SDLC process a requirement is in for a project. It allows linking layered or complementary requirements, such as from different stake holders, or a different tier of the project.

It provides easy baselining at each stage of a project, making it simple to see what the full set of requirements were at any given time. You can view current or past baselines. It provides relationships and links to related artifacts such as test plans and project documents, making it simple to see snapshots of the project over time. If used with Serena CM, then its power is quite remarkable, provides full traceability to the very code objects that implement each requirement.
  • Traceability - will allow you to see end to end how requirements are related to each other, to project artifacts, how the requirement was tested, and the implementation code (when using with Serena CM).
  • Baselines - these are snapshots in time which are typically used at project phases and milestones. They allow you to see all aspects of a project from requirements to testing and how it has progressed or changed over time.
  • Test Management - test steps, execution, defect management are all included in RM, providing a powerful SDLC management platform.
  • The very complexity of the product, which makes it powerful and flexible, provides easy opportunities to misuse it and make a mess of things. Its very important to set up roles, life-cycle workflows, and methodologies very thoughtfully during implementation, otherwise it can easily become ineffective and even burdensome to the process.
  • RM has not been fully implemented by my organization, it has primarily been used in evaluation and pilot programs.
Serena RM is well suited for mid to large size companies, with mature processes in place, that want to standardize project methodologies across the IT department, and want to give users a collaborative role in the requirements and testing process. It is especially powerful when used with Serena CM, integrating change management and the code repository with the full project life cycle. It is not as well suited for smaller organizations, or organizations that do not have mature processes in place (unless they are using RM as the tool to strengthen processes). RM would be burdensome and restrictive in that scenario. Serena products are well suited for environments that are under heavy regulatory restrictions due to the roles based workflow and traceability that can be put in place.