SoftSpec can also be used to monitor progress on upgrades or maintenance to software. It runs on HP workstations under X windows and Motif.
During the requirements specification stage, information must be acquired from the various clients to define the final software product. Frequently there are incompatible requirements in a specification, which often do not become apparent until too late in the project to do much about them. SoftSpec provides clear evidence of conflicting requirements at the start of the project enabling misunderstandings and conflicts to be resolved before programming begins.
The requirements of a software project (tool or application) can be specified as a series of demands and wishes. Demands are requirements which must be met and wishes are requirements which, under ideal circumstances, should be met. Wishes are weighted according to their importance, thus aiding in trade-off between incompatible requirements and in the evaluation of potential solutions.
The requirements are grouped in various category headings such as "Timescales", "Educational objectives" - these categories can be altered to suit the requirements of individual projects. Many users can contribute to a project specification, and the software keeps track of who specifies a requirement as well as the status of that requirement (pending, complete or obsolete)
The requirements document can be output as a .tex or .dvi file (easily convertible to postscript) and requirements can be sorted by category or in order of importance.