Fact Sheet: Requirements Interchange Format (ReqIF)

General

Short Description/ Transmitted Information	Definition of standard for exchange of textural requirements in XML
Application Scope	Exchange of requirements in-house and across enterprise boarders
Maturity	- Industrialization (potentially standardization) - Productive Usage
Goals	- Standardized exchange format for requirements interchange - Interoperability between Requirements authoring tools - Improvement of collaboration between business partners
Penetration	- Internal cross-domain processes - External collaboration processes
Visibility	Approx. 30%
Promoting Bodies	- VDA - prostep ivip Assiciation - EuroSpec
Type	- prostep ivip Recommendation - OMG Standard
IT Standard Classification	Interoperability Standard
Data Format	Text Format (ASCII/XML)
Relations to other standards
Overlap with other standards

AVAILABLE ACCOMPANYING DOCUMENTATION

Software Vendors

Implementation Guides, Best Practices
Test Files
Benchmark results

Industry Users

Use Cases
Guidelines
Best Practice Examples
Benchmark Results
ReqIF Webinars (see www.prostep.org)

Positioning of ReqIF in V-Model

Details

Reasons for promoting standardization:

Overall use of ReqIF for a tool independent lossless exchange of requirements.
Provide efficiency between partners for requirements exchange for external communication: OEM/OEM; OEM/Joint Venture; Customer/Supplier; Customer/Service Provider and internal communication between business units / cross-lifecycle, cross-discipline
Securing long-term usage of standard
Ease process automation and consolidation
Achieve consistency across company boarders
Legally binding arrangement of standards in further applicable documents (e.g. component specifications)
Augment quality of requirement exchange packages

The Requirements Interchange Format (ReqIF) describes an open, non-proprietary exchange format. Requirement information is exchanged by transferring XML documents that comply to the ReqIF format.

The XML data model of the ReqIF standard supports the automated transfer of specifications including graphics, tables and embedded files. In addition, it encloses clear rules for the description and with it also for the identification of the data.

The ReqIF standard is managed by the Object Management Group, Inc. (OMG) and has a solid recognition in the industry and is adopted by many Requirements Management tools (RM-tools). It is used to exchange requirement information between different databases and tool chains.

First ReqIF specification in 2008 (v1.0)
ReqIF is technically stable since 2011 (v1.0.1)
Latest available version: ReqIF v1.2

Relevance and Benefit for MBSE

Implementation of a standard format for a tool independent lossless exchange of requirements
Harmonized application of ReqIF for in-house and cross enterprise processes
Provide efficiency between partners for requirements exchange for external communication
ReqIF use case documentation supports communication of requirements in a clear and comprehensible manner