IBM is simplifying its requirements tool portfolio: IBM Rational Requirements Composer is being renamed to IBM Rational DOORS Next Generation. As of version 5.0, which released on June 2, 2014, Rational Requirements Composer and Rational DOORS Next Generation are no longer separate products. They are one product: Rational DOORS Next Generation.

In 2008, we introduced Rational Requirements Composer, a re-imagining of team collaboration around requirements for the web age.  In 2011, we introduced Rational DOORS Next Generation (RDNG), which extends the collaborative foundation to address the needs of teams that develop large, complex, and embedded systems.  Since 2011, we’ve been infusing the best parts of Rational DOORS into RDNG while remembering that collaborative functions are more essential in the new ways that we work.

We’ve been listening to teams that develop applications and services in a regulated IT environment, and to teams that develop complex and embedded products and systems. We’ve learned that the capabilities those teams need are converging for requirements elicitation, prioritization, change, and use across the development lifecycle.  Our product capabilities reflect this: as of version 4.0.5, the capabilities of Rational Requirements Composer and RDNG are identical — only the names of the licenses differ.

As of version 5.0, when your administrator runs the installation process or goes to the Rational License Key Center, you will see that references to Rational Requirements Composer are renamed too.  The application that runs is still called the Requirements Management (RM) application, and the capabilities remain the same.  When you are working in the product, you will mainly see references to the RM application instead of a product name, as has already been the case for several releases.