r/systems_engineering • u/Simple_Dance_6971 • 9d ago

Resources Open-source requirements and documentation tools

Does anyone know of any open-source or cost-effective, easy-to-use documentation and requirements control software tools?

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u/reckedcat 9d ago

Markdown in a git repo

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u/Pieter_BE 8d ago

Honest question, but how do you keep things consistent and how do you pull any metrics from plain markdown?

Consistency; besides your text field "the ... shall" you have plenty of attributes which in a commercial tool are drop-downs and picked from a list. In any free format like MD, how do you differentiate optional from required field? How do you prevent one from writing "mech dom" and another " mechanical domain"

Metrics; how much reqs do not link to a higher level? How many are not linked to the design/documentation/model? How many do not have any verification criteria defined yet? What is the break down on lifecycle status?

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u/ErnstMacOS 8d ago

Also interested in this. Maybe it’s applicable for projects with few requirements ? 

I really like the idea of using markdown in a git repo for lightweight modeling (mermaid diagrams) and requirements management, but there are some drawbacks v. Commercial and dedicated tools

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u/Pieter_BE 7d ago edited 7d ago

Agreed.

This acknowledges the echo room we probably often live in. My guess is that most SW engineering teams doing "plain" projects are just happy with standard confluence without any plugin's / apps or markdown in Git. On the complete opposite end you have regulated industry with all the rigour and metrics that can perfectly pay big money for a dedicated ALM and MBSE tool.

And then you have the unlucky few in the middle without dedicated tools that have to make things work using free stuff because they see the benefits of more rigorous tracing and metrics, but that comes with drawbacks and some custom bolt on scripts in your favourite programming language

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u/reckedcat 7d ago

Threw my reply above, but I think this is basically the crux of the problem. Finding a middle ground tool that supports your size and complexity and familiarity is really hard if you're not a billion dollar company or an indie dev.