'DOORS'-style Requirements Management System - KIND Is Not DOORS
Initially a web application client superimposed on a database-driven server.
This project won't attempt - at least initially - to surpass or even rival DOORS. However, it will attempt to be powerful, usable, and it will be free and open source.
BSD, initially at least. Before accepting first contribution from others, will solidify this. If you want part or all of the source provided by ransage, just drop me a line and I may be willing to accommodate.
I used DOORS a lot from sometime in the oughts until late 2011. I was fairly proficient, even learnig the DOORS eXtension Language (DXL), but I was a system architect and system performance analyst initially and eventually I had repsonsibility for technical integrity of a satellite. I really care about the inherent relationships of performance parameters and our ability to ensure that all of the pieces come together to deliver the necessary level of system performance. In short, I was never the typical DOORS user - most architects and analysts managed to avoid using DOORS most of the time...
My overall experience using IBM DOORS left me thinking that (even then) modern web technologies could pretty easily provide the essential features less expensively and with better usability. Many of my colleagues found it too irksome to use the product, limiting its usefulness to me and limiting our efficiency. I kept pretty busy and that kept me from doing anything about this - that and my general impression that my company was sold on DOORS and wouldn't use something better even if you paid them to do so...
At the end of 2011, I escaped the things I didn't like about DOORS by leaving my big-aerospace company and joining a startup, which naturally means I gave up the good features as well. I still supported specification and verification efforts, but I found myself even busier and I couldn't have cared much less how imperfect our tools were because I had zero time to do anything about it.
In mid 2013, I stopped working full time for that startup in large part to be able to pursue my own projects part time. This project did/does not rank very highly, but now I see a potential opportunity to benefit one of my day jobs with such a tool - which trumps some of my other longer-term objectives. (It helps that some of my high priorities will benefit from picking up Django or boning up on Rails.) I find that I like the DOORS/database-style RMS, but a brief interaction with IBM's sales team quickly convinced me that I'm not interested in paying for their product.