You May Be Losing Deals & Customers Without You Even Knowing. |
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Excel™, Word™ & Email Are
WRONG TOOLS
for Managing Requirements. They Can Make You
LOSE DEALS & CUSTOMERS.
But Only One in Ten Readers Can
GET THE RIGHT TOOL
And Prevent These Losses. |
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Why Only One in Ten Readers |
Just like you, almost all readers who come to this page manage requirements for their products and services - in one form or another.
But this page will appeal to only about one in ten readers. The other nine will be hardworkers, ambitious and earnest. But to them, a tool is a tool. They will believe any tool is good enough to manage requirements, even if it is ill-suited for the task. The one reader in ten knows the importance of the proper tool. He or she knows that the proper tool saves valuable time and prevents losses. |
Importance of Proper Tool |
 Imagine that you just bought a beautiful painting in an exquisite wooden frame. You'd like to hang it in your living room. To do so you need to make holes in your wall. Which tool to your right would you choose to make these holes? The screwdriver or the drill?
Now imagine that you had several screwdrivers in your toolbox. But you did not have a drill, and you had to get in your car and drive to the hardware store that is fifteen minutes away to buy it. Now which tool would you pick?
Most of us will still pick the drill because it is the right tool to make holes. While we could conceivably use the screwdriver to make holes, it would be frustrating, ineffective and may cause the painting to fall down and break due to poor holes. The drill - while more expensive - saves us valuable time and makes effective holes that will hold the painting - i.e. prevents losses. |
Why Excel & Word Are Wrong Tools |
| When it comes to managing your requirements, Excel and Word are just like the screwdriver. They are readily available and you already know how to use them. But they are the wrong tools for the task at hand. Why? Using such "general purpose" tools to manage your requirements leads to: |
- Incomplete
Requirements
- As these are general-purpose tools, it is very hard to gather requirements in a structured fashion. This often leads to incomplete requirements - a top cause for project failures in a large study by the Standish Group.
- Incorrect Requirements
- Requirements documents created using Excel and Word usually are stored on the author's computer, and are not accessible by others in real-time.
- This makes it harder to discuss, validate, and track changes - often leading to incorrect requirements.
- Lost Requirements
- Most importantly - it is very easy for requirements to drop through the cracks when using Excel/Word to manage them. Even critical requirements can be lost when the author forgets, is reassigned, or leaves your organization.
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 Incomplete, incorrect and lost requirements lead to LOST DEALS & UNHAPPY CUSTOMERS WHO DEFECT - without you even knowing it is caused by the wrong tools. Furthermore, using tools like Excel and Word to manage your requirements TAKES VALUABLE TIME AWAY from higher-value activities.
Due to largely similar reasons, Engineering & Sales teams at most companies do NOT use Excel & Word to track their issues and opportunities - they use tools built for that particular task. You too can prevent these losses and save valuable time by choosing the right tool to manage your requirements. |
How to Get the Right Tool |
| Gartner, the leading independent market research organization, says the following: |
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"Requirements management can be simplified if initial requirements definitions are captured in a database-based tool to enable collaborative review... traceability and versioning/change control" |
Matt Light, Research Director, Gartner |
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| Accompa is the leading web-based requirements management tool that allows you to avoid the shortcomings of Excel & Word, and manage your requirements successfully. |
Accompa is an easy-to-use and proven software used by more than 100 companies
of all sizes to manage their requirements. It is customizable to fit your organization's needs. It is also very affordable - it costs just $25/month per user (or lower). |
| If you have read this far and if you agree that getting the right tool is important - you are the "one in ten" reader we created Accompa for. Click the link below to try it risk-free right now. |
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| 30-day FREE Trial. Start managing requirements in under 5 minutes. |
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Customers of All Sizes Love Us |
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| 30-day FREE Trial. Start managing requirements in under 5 minutes. |
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