About RAVEN
RAVEN is Ravenflow’s award-winning business requirements definition software that empowers business analysts to dramatically transform the way they elicit, specify, and validate stakeholder requirements so projects can be delivered faster, at less cost, and with greater user satisfaction. Based upon patented language processing technology, RAVEN allows business people to describe their needs in plain English, then automatically identifies missing requirements while generating visual process and use case diagrams that all stakeholders can understand.
Using RAVEN, business analysts and other team members can rapidly visualize and validate requirements, build team consensus, and produce clear specifications of their business process workflows, business use cases, and business application needs.
Where to Use RAVEN
With its distinctive business orientation and process-based approach to requirements definition, RAVEN is uniquely suited for use on both enterprise process improvement and application development projects. Regardless of project type, business analysts, requirements engineers, solution consultants, and other users can quickly elicit, specify, and validate requirements with the entire project team using RAVEN’s built-in services for business/IT collaboration.
Unlike today’s requirements management products that specialize in tracking application requirements through the development lifecycle, the primary focus of RAVEN is requirements definition—or getting requirements right in the first place. It does this by linking requirements directly to the business processes and user activities being transformed, thus ensuring project investments are aligned from the start and deliver the expected business value.
RAVEN Product Overview
Ravenflow provides an end-to-end solution for business requirements definition, including a suite of client tools, document publishers, platform connectors, and collaboration services built around the core RAVEN Language Engine.
RAVEN Express
An Office add-in product where the power of RAVEN is used to transform Microsoft Word into a rich requirements definition and validation tool.
RAVEN Professional
A robust Windows-based process and requirements definition environment that runs either standalone or connected to the RAVEN Collaboration Space platform.
RAVEN Web Access
Provides a web-based interface to the RAVEN Collaboration Space for participation in RAVEN-driven requirements review and related collaboration activities.
RAVEN Language Engine
Ravenflow’s patented technology that analyzes, verifies, and generates visual diagrams from process and use case narratives.
RAVEN Publishers
Enables generation and output of Microsoft Word specifications and other Office documents, as well as export of visual diagrams to process and UML modeling tools.
RAVEN Connectors
Provides interfaces to leading requirements management platforms, including IBM Rational RequisitePro, IBM Telelogic DOORS, Microsoft Visual Studio Team System, and HP Quality Center.
RAVEN Collaboration Space
Web-based collaboration services accessible through both RAVEN Professional and the RAVEN Web Access client that enables project sharing, group editing, and requirements review and sign-off.
RAVEN Functional Highlights
Generates business-friendly visual diagrams from process and use case text.
- Faster and more accurate reviews by stakeholders
- Text and diagrams are always in perfect synchronization
Identifies logical errors, flow breaks, and ambiguities to help find missing requirements.
- Reduces delays due to rework or waiting for clarification
- Promotes consistency and shared understanding between team members
Publishes business requirements specification documents from user-definable templates.
- Creates documentation that is much easier to read and understand
- Faster delivery of specifications to development in a consistent format
Generates functional test cases from process and use case definitions.
- Identifies all process flow paths to ensure complete coverage of functional test cases
- Provides great starting point for text case development in products like HP Quality Center
Facilitates communication and collaboration between business and IT stakeholders.
- Enables sharing and joint editing of projects by multiple business analysts
- Manages requirements review cycles to rapidly achieve team consensus
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As far as the Raven tool, I have personally noticed an improvement in my ability to write use cases as a result of using the tool. For example, I am better able to write sentences in the active voice and to clearly define the actor function and object of the sentence. Although this might sound simple, it was the tool's ability to translate my words into an activity diagram that has helped me to visualize the use case and make the necessary corrections. I have come to depend on Raven as I write my use cases.
