IBM DOORS Reviews

The primary use for the product is requirements management. That is essentially prioritizing and planning product delivery.  

What I like the most is probably requirement traceability in configuration management.  

Usability and user-friendliness could definitely be improved as far as ease-of-use. The documentation could also be easier to use, I would say. Maybe, in general, they need to see things more from an end-user's perspective in their future development.  

I am not using this product at my current company, but I probably have approximately 20 years of experience using DOORS (Dynamic Object Oriented Requirements System).  

DOORS is a very mature and stable product these days.   

When it comes to scalability, I think it is a little bit expensive to get more users onboard. I do not think there are practical limitations to scaling the use, it just might be costly to take on additional licenses to scale.  

We have used the product's technical support for some issues and we did have a positive experience with them. They were able to resolve the issues that we had in a reasonable amount of time.  

It is not cheap. It is expensive to onboard additional licenses.  

I would definitely recommend DOORS to people who need this kind of solution. You would probably need to have a reasonably large-sized project to use it because of the cost. But I can definitely recommend it if the need is there.  

On a scale from one to ten (where one is the worst and ten is the best), I would rate IBM Rational DOORS as about a seven-of-ten, I reckon. What would need to be included to improve that score is probably cloud hosting.  

• Traceability
• Baselines
• Ability to customize using DXL

Having clear requirements is essential in delivering the right product.

I've used it for 18 years.

No issues encountered.

No issues encountered.

No issues encountered.

8/10

8/10

When I started using DOORS, there were several other relational management tools in use at Boeing (where I worked then). We set DOORS as our standard. Now, I work for another Large US Aerospace Company, and DOORS is our standard.

The setup is very simple. It licenses, and runs the two executables, server and clent, and you are done.

Although DOORS is very easy to use, the actual database needs to be set up correctly and users must follow a well-defined process. This is where most customers have issues with DOORS.

The best advice is to use tokens so you can use all the appropriate IBM tools.

Over the years supporting requirements management, I have participated in many trade studies where tools were evaluated. DOORS won most every time. Tools under consideration were Slate, Requisite Pro, RDD100, RTM, Razor, and TcSE.

• Traceability
• Impact analysis
• History
• Baseline sets
• DXL scripting
• Publication with Rational Publishing Engine (separate product)

IBM Rational DOORS allows requirements to be efficiently and effectively tracked, traced, and managed throughout the project lifecycle. Managing requirements in documents, e-mails, spreadsheets etc. becomes unwieldy. Anybody that has attempted this will find IBM Rational DOORS a godsend.

Some users complain of a clunky interface, but DOORS NG which is planned to succeed DOORS over the next 5-10 years addresses these issues and is a good up and coming alternative to DOORS.

I've used it for 12 years.

Most of the issues of deployment in my experience tend to be people related issues. For instance, resistance to change in processes, and learning a new tool.

IBM Rational DOORS is a very mature stable solution.

I have not encountered any issues with scalability. I have experience of supporting databases containing hundreds of thousands of requirements with no issues that cannot be mitigated through good schema design.

IBM Rational DOORS customer service are approachable and easy to deal with.

IBM Rational DOORS technical support are prompt and good at resolving issues.

I have used other tools such as RDD-100, CaliberRM and in-house developed solutions.In all cases I have simply moved into new roles in other organisations with the opportunity to use IBM Rational DOORS.

With a qualified DOORS Deployment Professional, the initial setup is relatively straightforward. They should be able to design and build a schema to support your process. templates can be created to make project setup relatively straightforward.

I normally work as part of a vendor team.

The largest ROI would normally be achieved on bigger projects, but an ROI is possible across many smaller projects so long as consistency is maintained in terms of process and schema across the projects.

Consider the overall cost of ownership beyond the initial license costs. You will need to budget for development of your process, designing and building the schema, training and ongoing database administration and support to users of the tool.

Over many years I have evaluated and used many other COTs and bespoke requirements management tools. I have found IBM Rational DOORS to be the most flexible and powerful solution available for serious requirements management.

Develop good requirements development and management process firstly then design and implement a DOORS schema and training around your process. Simplicity and consistency is the key to a successful implementation. Management buy in and support is also essential.

We primarily use the solution for governmental management.

The recommendation aspects of the solution are good.

It's difficult to set the code on the solution. 

The testing part needs to be improved, but they have too much legacy to move to the latest IBM versions. 

I do not believe there are any more plans for this product. It's now a legacy solution. They should just ensure that they keep the technical support they have in place to assist existing users.

The solution is stable.

The solution isn't scalable.

We previously used a different solution, but the change was the company's choice.

The initial setup was complex.

The solution can be used in the studio environment, but you need to manage it correctly.

I would rate the solution six out of ten.

• Configuration management
• Requirements linking
• Access control
• DXL5

It enables us to manage our customers' requirements effectively and efficiently.

They need to improve the DOORS change proposal.

I've used it for six months.

No issues encountered.

It can crash, but it doesn't happen too often.

I've not used their customer service.

No previous solution was in place.

We did it in-house, but I wasn't involved.

Use right license model to suit your needs.

Get someone who is familiar with the product to manage

I use Rational DOORS to define requirements during the software development process and share databases with our suppliers.

Rational DOORS' most valuable feature is that you can write any kind of requirement you want.

Rational DOORS doesn't support the agile process.

I've been using Rational DOORS for over ten years.

Rational DOORS is stable about 70-80% of the time.

Rational DOORS is easy to scale.

The initial setup was straightforward.

We used a vendor team.

I would give Rational DOORS a rating of nine out of ten.

I am a consultant and this is one of the solutions that my company uses to help our clients.

Rational DOORS is used to help our customers with system engineering. I use it to design complex systems like trains and cars. DOORS is used to collect all of the requirements for these big systems and then we try to organize the requirements. We make sure that the system functions in compliance with the requirements. 

Using this solution will streamline processes and generally improve the quality of them.

The most important feature is that it is able to manage a lot of requirements.

It helps to maintain global compliance during all of the stages of development. When you specify the functionality of the system, it is able to show that the system is compliant with the needs. Moreover, it is easy to maintain compliance based on the design.

This solution is able to manage a lot of data.

It is very customizable and easy to scale.

Implementing processes should be easier.

The interface is not very user-friendly and has not evolved in a long time. People like to have a nice tool that is up to date with the latest technology, and this is not the case with DOORS.

I have been using IBM Rational DOORS for more than ten years.

Rational DOORS is very reliable compared to the other tools that I have used. It works very well.

It is very scalable. You can start with a few sets of data and then add more as needed, so it's very scalable. It is also easy to customize and I am satisfied with it.

Depending on the project, we may have one or two people using this solution, all the way up to perhaps 50 people.

I have never spoken with anyone at IBM's support.

I have also used REQTIFY. 

The initial setup is complex, although it is linked to the complexity of the project.

If you have something very simple then the setup will be straightforward but if you have something complex then it will be more difficult. For example, if you are designing a launcher to send satellites into space then you want to have enough information about it before you start the system. These systems are very expensive to develop, so you want to demonstrate that it will be of good quality and be able to handle the operations required to achieve the goals of the project.

It takes between one week and one month to deploy, depending on the requirements.

I can perform the deployment myself, although sometimes we need to involve many people. There are engineers, quality teams, and validation teams. Many parts of the business can be involved in the deployment.

Because this is an expensive solution, if you want to realize ROI then you have to use it for big projects.

This is an expensive solution. Licensing fees are billed annually and there is no support included with what I pay.

There is another solution called Rational DOORS Next Generation that has a nicer interface and it is easier to use, but it is less scalable.

The difficulty with implementing this solution is that you are asking the organization to change its processes. The important part is, however, that you are trying to improve the quality of the systems. You have to maintain the customer's vision and show that the goals will be reached, but done more efficiently. In the end, you have to give the customer every assurance that the work is done in its entirety.

This is a solution that I recommend. If people need to write specifications in the context of engineering then I think that this is the best solution on the market. If on the other hand, you want to manage requirements, then I don't think that it is an appropriate tool.

Similarly, DOORS is a good tool because you have to maintain compliance with all of the requirements during development. If you have a supplier with no needs or requirements then it is not at all an appropriate tool.

Overall, it is a good solution but they need to update the user interface. If they also lower the price then it would be perfect.

I would rate this solution a seven out of ten.

• Traceability
• VRTMs

Requirements development, and doing everything from functional requirements to system requirements, means we can verify that there are no orphan or childless requirements, which ensure full traceability in a short amount of time using the available tools.

I've used it for six years.

No issues encountered.

No issues encountered.

8/10.

8/10.

No previous solution was used.

It was very straightforward.

It was done in-house.

It's better if your partners use the same tool, which makes for better sharing of files and artefacts.