Requirements Management has been established to ensure seamless specifications along the product creation process. In order to manage complex specification processes and requirements dependencies, companies introduced requirements management systems.

To support a proper requirements exchange between partners using different tools, the project group «Simulation and Tools» of the HIS (Hersteller Initiative Software) specified the generic „Requirement Interchange Format (RIF)“.

In summer 2008, the prostep ivip association initiated the project group IntRIF to increase the acceptance and application of RIF by transferring the recommendation into an international standard. With the successful standardization in April 2011, OMG ReqIF 1.0.1 has been published as the official successor of RIF.

prostep ivip established two project groups to further drive the ReqIF format:
The goal of the ReqIF Implementor Forum is to ensure interoperability between different ReqIF-based implementations. Therefore, the ReqIF-IF works very tightly together with the newly established ReqIF Workflow Forum.

In 2016, the community of relevant user representatives consequently made the next step: Specifying relevant use cases for ReqIF application in industry.

Thus, mayor aim of the prostep ivip / VDA ReqIF-WF is to specify use cases as well as reference processes (OEM-OEM, OEM-Supplier etc.) and, related to this, deriving process requirements and test cases. The work is performed in close collaboration with the ReqIF Implementor Forum.

To prove the applicability of the ReqIF format, the project groups have decided to perform benchmarks. The first benchmark in 2018 focused on basic functionalities. Advanced functionalities may be tested in upcoming benchmarks. Goal of the benchmarks is a neutral evaluation of the current capabilities in requirement data exchange with ReqIF. Additionally, issues that require further development of either the format itself or of the tested software tools will be identified and addressed.