Welcome 2025!

by | 10.01.2025 | General, using objectiF RPM

In the 42nd year of microTOOL, we have big plans.

Higher, faster, further – that’s what everyone wants… but let’s be specific: in 2025, we want to implement even more of your requirements. We want to make our tools more scalable and easier to use. We want to support you even better with the following goals:

  • Single point of information: No more tool islands!
  • Optimized processes: Digitization and automation for greater efficiency.
  • Reduced costs: Less process effort, more budget for the essentials.
  • Greater employee satisfaction: better workflows, simpler collaboration.

In short, in 2025 we will continue to provide you with compelling, high-quality, demand-driven, and practical solutions to help you execute your projects efficiently and on schedule. That’s why we make software and provide services.

Agile Development Meets Model-Driven Processes

We have been developing software since 1984 and have gained valuable experience with various methods and technologies. From structured analysis and object-oriented programming to standards such as the V-model, CMMI, Automotive SPICE, Scrum and Kanban, we combine proven approaches with innovative solutions.

We have been using agile software development and combining it with model-driven processes for almost 25 years. This enables us to create sophisticated solutions that are standardized, adaptable and individually applicable. Through automation, model transformations and code generation, we gain valuable time to focus on the creative and innovative aspects of software development.

Our software consists of approximately 700 .NET projects with 36,000 source code files – a challenge that would be nearly impossible to meet without efficient development processes. And our success proves us right: the third and fourth generation of our tools are popular and growing. Thanks to your ideas and ours, we are constantly developing new, innovative features and enhancements – and we look forward to continuing on this path together.

Artificial Intelligence in 2025

AI has not only been the big topic in software development in recent months. It is already changing everyday life in many industries:

In the movie industry, AI is used to adapt the lip movement of an actress’ face to other dubbed languages or to make the actor’s face look younger or older as needed.

In medicine, AI is being used not only to produce better CT/MRI images more quickly with Deep Resolve, but also to evaluate the results and generate reports.

In the automotive sector, we are looking forward to Level 3 autonomous driving, which will allow the driver to pick up a book, write a WhatsApp message or surf the Internet.

Will AI disrupt software development? Most likely. Will software developers, architects, requirements engineers, and testers become obsolete in the medium term? We don’t think so.

Used correctly, AI can be a productivity booster, freeing up teams to do more creative, innovative, and exciting work. That’s why we’re working intensively on AI and integrating it into our solutions – including the latest versions of objectiF RM and objectiF RPM.

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New Functions in objectiF RM and objectiF RPM

With the current objectiF RM/RPM version you can

  • Carry out quality analysis
    • Check requirements for similarity
    • Check requirements for contradictions
  • and by means of generative AI per assistent
    • Derive and refine requirements from requirements
    • Derive test cases with preconditions, postconditions and test steps from requirements

The new objectiF RM/RPM version 9.1 is automatically available to all customers with a maintenance contract. If you are interested, you can test the possibilities with the free Trial Edition.

We will be happy to give you an overview in a free webinar on January 23, 2025 and show you how you can take full advantage of the possibilities of analytical and generative AI in requirements engineering.

New Functions in in-STEP BLUE

In addition to all the AI euphoria and support, we are also developing many new, useful functions and features that will help users to work more smoothly and gain more overview and transparency in the jungle of many projects.

The latest in-STEP BLUE version 6.9 was recently delivered to all maintenance customers and includes the following features:

  • Workspaces to manage related projects
  • Kanban boards to visualize the status of requirements, tasks, risks, test cases, etc.
  • Line and bar charts to visualize the change of information over time
  • Generation of project status reports based on dashboard reports

See the new Kanban boards and learn how the various charts in dashboards and documents show project progress at the click of a button. The free webinar “Das ist neu in-STEP BLUE 6.9” will take place on February 13.

Looking ahead: Features planned for 2025

What are we working on in the coming months? What can you expect to see in 2025?

Among other things, we will be adding AI support to our process-based project management tool in-STEP BLUE. The following features are planned:

  • Checking elements for similarity and inconsistency using analytical AI
  • Generic assistent for element derivation using generative AI
  • Authentification via SAML
  • Time tracking with arrival and departure times
  • Implementation of your feature requests

We are also planning powerful enhancements for objectiF RM and objectiF RPM. In 2025, we want to extend the advantages of AI support in the area of requirements engineering to the area of project management. objectiF RPM and objectiF RM will receive the following features:

  • Generation of project structures/planning for project types using generative AI
  • Planning of requirements for implementation, taking into account dependencies, similarities and priorities
  • Additional AI wizards for any artifacts, including user-defined artifacts, e.g. to create tasks from tickets or actions from risks
  • Migrate multiple projects to new databases while maintaining referential integrity
  • Implement your feature requests

Looking forward to working with you and 2025!

Google sees 2025 as a pivotal year for its AI assistants. Microsoft is investing $80 billion in its AI infrastructure.

Our investments will not be in the billions – but we are investing our heart and soul, our expertise and our innovative spirit to bring you the best possible solutions in 2025.

We wish you a year of success, health, and happiness. Let’s meet new challenges and seize new opportunities together! We look forward to an exciting 2025 with you!

Best regards

René Rönisch & Enrico Fritz

on behalf of the microTOOL team