Rational Requirements Composer

Foundations

Rational Requirements Composer (RRC)

IBM's collaborative tool for capturing, elaborating, and managing requirements using text, diagrams, and other rich artifacts.

Requirements Management

The disciplined practice of capturing, organizing, and controlling requirements throughout a project.

Collaborative Definition

RRC enables stakeholders to define and review requirements together on a shared platform.

Why RRC

It supports rich, visual requirements and collaboration, improving shared understanding and reducing ambiguity.

Capturing

Requirement Artifact

A managed item representing a requirement, which can be text, a diagram, a use case, or other format.

Rich Text and Diagrams

RRC captures requirements in varied formats, including sketches, storyboards, and process diagrams.

Use Cases

Requirements captured as use cases describing actor-system interactions that deliver value.

Glossary

A shared set of defined terms that keeps requirements consistent and understandable.

Organizing

Artifact Types

Configurable categories of requirements, each with attributes suited to its purpose.

Attributes

Properties on a requirement — priority, status, owner — used to manage and filter.

Modules and Collections

Ways to group and structure requirements for organization and review.

Folders and Tags

Mechanisms to categorize and find requirements easily.

Collaboration

Reviews

Structured review workflows where stakeholders comment on and approve requirements.

Comments and Discussions

In-context conversations that capture decisions and rationale on requirements.

Approvals

Formal sign-off on requirements to establish agreement and baselines.

Traceability

Traceability Links

Relationships linking requirements to each other and to design, tests, and change requests.

Impact Analysis

Using links to assess which items are affected by a proposed change.

Coverage

Verifying that requirements are addressed by design and tests via traceability.

Change

Managing Change

Controlling requirement changes with versioning, review, and traceability.

Baselines

Snapshots of the requirement set at a point in time for reference and control.

Integration

Jazz Platform Integration

RRC integrates with change and quality tools on the Jazz platform for end-to-end traceability.

Best Practices

Requirements Best Practices

Clear artifacts, consistent attributes, disciplined review, traceability, and controlled change.