Doors

DOORS (Dynamic Object-Oriented Requirements System), What? When? How? Why?

DOORS is a software tool for managing complex projects. It is used to store multiple Documents and Tables containing project requirements and other information. You can readily import Word and Excel documents and Access Tables into DOORS as it is both document-centred as well as spreadsheet-like. For example a typical standard may contain information notes, guidance notes and requirements. By importing the standard into DOORS:

• All individual requirements may be tagged (Attribute ‘Type’= Requirements, Guidance Note, etc.) and filtered from the rest of notes without losing the remainder of information;

• Requirements may be categorised (Attribute ‘Category’ = CAT1, 2, 3);

• Requirements from separate documents may be linked showing one-to-one, one-to-many, . relationships. This is an important feature allowing traceability through the project lifecycle

• Any project, product supplier or vendor may use DOORS Links to individual standards for example to demonstrate compliance with mandatory CAT1 requirements. SEE OUR EXAMPLE WORK FOR LUL.

We customised DOORS for management of safety information, such as a Hazard Log, Compliance with Safety Standards (e.g. RGS, TSI, HMRI Railway Principles and Guidance, LUL), project-specific safety requirements, and to implement safety case notations such as GSN and ASCAD. This led to our now acclaimed ISCaDE TM product.

DOORS is a flexible tool that we have customised to support each of our client project’s needs. It is very configurable and adaptable. The key has been to identify in a project quality plan the set of procedures best fitting any particular project’s needs. These include, for example, what documents need to be imported into DOORS and which ones just referenced, who needs to be trained, how to use DOORS in conjunction with other Office tools such as Word and Excel. The aim has been to use ‘horses for courses’ and save the overall project costs and resources (staff time). Where it was decided to use DOORS on a particular project, it has led to efficiencies in time and cost of overall information management (traceability and retrieval as well as co-working). On simpler projects we have advised that simple Office tools would suffice. However, we also firmly believe it is wrong to re-invent the wheel. We have seen projects trying to invent a new bespoke requirements management tool using MS-Access. Our reply has been to demonstrate the considerable problems with this approach and explain why it is best to make most use of best breed Commercial Off-The Shelf (COTS) solutions instead.