I was asked by someone do you use any tools to gather requirements or prepare functional Specification Document, and I was like Tools ? isn't it a task that needs human brain and intervention?  How ill tool do it ? That makes me ask this question are there any tools around to gather requirements and prepare functional specification documents.

When I say tools I mean tools as in tool like you have visio for Use case diagrams the same way is there tool for this. I dont mean just an automated process but a software like a tool to do it !

Hi Kvira,

No, there aren't any tools that automate the actual 'requirements gathering' process - as you say, that still needs a real person to do the actual elicitation of requirements. There are quite a few tools for recording requirements once you've elicited them, and to manage requirements throughout the project lifecycle. The type of output documentation varies depending on the tool - can be anything from functional specifications or use cases in a document format, to requirements trees / matrices, to graphical and prototyping approaches for requirements definition. Other tools (such as Enterprise Architect) support a process-driven approach and can produce a wide variety of diagrams and artifacts to support requirements management.

People tend to refer to these types of tools by many different terms - requirements definition tools, requirements management tools, process modeling toosl, and even as generic as 'business analysis tools'. And as you've discovered, can even be referred to as requirements gathering tools. But BAs definitely still have to do all the elicitation and gathering - no such thing as a BAbot yet :)

Sandy