If you regularly exchange requirements with partners, Axiom may be the solution you have been looking for. It is designed to support the HIS-Process, a recommendation for requirements exchange between two partners.

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How it Works – Step By Step

Der Hersteller (Manufacturer) breitet sich vor, Anforderungen zur Kommentierung an den Zulieferer (Supplier) zu schicken. Da der Hersteller formalmind Studio benutzt, kann er einen ReqIF-Export definieren. Dazu gehören bspw. Attribute für Status und Kommentar. The data can be sent to the supplier by any means: email, secure portal, etc. The supplier can then import the data with Axiom or any other tool of their choice. Wenn die Änderungen und Kommentare abgeschlossen sind, wird ein Export der entsprechenden Anforderungen vorbereitet. Diese werden dann zum Hersteller zurückgeschickt. Der Hersteller benutzt wieder Axiom, um die Daten zu verarbeiten. Dabei können Attribute selektiv importiert werden, und die Anforderungsstruktur kann wahlweise auch aktualisiert werden. Viele Use Cases lassen sich mit Axiom umsetzen.

The Problem: Requirements are the central communication tool for collaboration across company borders.  Until recently, this was only possible by converting the requirements into a common format, e.g. PDF or Excel.  This resulted in a significant loss of information (no traceability, formatting, etc.)  Merging information back was error prone and time intensive. There were expensive proprietary solutions that required all parties to use the same tools.

The Challenge: The ReqIF Standard was created to allow for a lossless, open exchange of requirements by creating a standardized data format.  This has been realized now, and many commercial tools, including Rational® DOORS® or PTC Integrity® support the standard.  But these are expensive tools that are overkill for small and medium sized companies.

Solution: With the open source Eclipse Requirements Modeling Framework, Formal Mind has been helping to make ReqIF-based tools available as widely as possible.  The result is the free formalmind Studio, a ReqIF editor that allows you to inspect and edit ReqIF data.  But this is not enough to collaborate, which requires intelligent merging and updating of data.

Results: We are proud to introduce Axiom, a new component for formalmind Studio.  It allows you to perform selective exports of your requirements data, and the subsequent selective merging and updating.  As the data is exchanged in ReqIF, interoperability with any tool that supports ReqIF is given.

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