Analysis and comparison of various requirements management tools for use in the shipbuilding industry

Abstract

Requirements are the cornerstone of all contracts for products and services. If requirements are not well defined and managed, the product or service may fail to meet the customer's needs and costs may go up. This is especially true in the shipbuilding industry where the customer has many requirements. Some are clearly defined while many more are undefined. Some requirements have to be generated from the implication of other requirements while even more have to be pulled from other industry or military standards. This amounts to hundreds or thousands of requirements. Without the proper tools, managing all these requirements would be next to impossible. This thesis investigates requirements management "Best Practices" and relate them to the needs of Systems Engineering in shipbuilding. This thesis also compares and analyzes several requirements management tools to see what may be the best fit for the shipbuilding industry in vessel design. This thesis provides recommendation of a specific requirements management tool and its suggested use.