DORA Requirements: How Requirements Management Software Supports Financial Institutions

We work with many teams in financial services, and one thing is clear: The pressure to stay stable during tech issues or cyber events is now stronger than ever.

Leaders working in financial institutions tell us they are not just worried about system downtime. They are worried about proof. Proof that their processes, controls, and records can stand up during audits.

This is where DORA changes the game. It sets one common rulebook for how financial institutions should prepare for, respond to, and recover from ICT incidents.

This blog explains what DORA is, its importance for every financial institution, and what it expects from a requirements management perspective, and how requirements management software can help with that.

Overview of the Digital Operational Resilience Act (DORA)

The Digital Operational Resilience Act (DORA) is an EU regulation that focuses on protecting the network and information systems used by financial institutions.

DORA came into effect in January 2023 and was fully enforced from 2025. So, all firms that operate in the finance sector in Europe, including banks, insurers, payment firms, fintech companies, and third-party ICT (information and communication technology) service providers to finance organizations, must follow DORA compliance requirements. 

Furthermore, DORA is not a soft advisory note but a legally binding rulebook that covers how financial institutions in the EU should manage ICT risks and incident reporting, run technical tests, and monitor third-party ICT service providers to make financial systems more stable and resilient.  

DORA forces finance teams to rely on structured workflows, accurate records, and evidence that can stand up during audits. So, teams can’t just rely on informal methods and scattered policies.

The Five Pillars of DORA

DORA is built on five core pillars, and each pillar sets clear duties for financial institutions and their third-party ICT partners. These pillars support each other and provide a structured approach for ICT management that brings clarity and more operational control.

ICT Risk Management

ICT risk management is a core part of DORA compliance, which mandates that financial institutions identify, assess, and precisely mitigate ICT-related risks. It encourages financial institutions to set a framework to continuously monitor ICT systems and prepare risk mitigation strategies. Its main aim is to keep the system stable, identify small issues in early stages, and prevent disasters or outages.

Incident Reporting

The “Incident Reporting” is a second pillar of DORA, which focuses on standardizing the incident reporting process in European finance organizations. It enforces financial entities to prepare transparent reports that clearly explain the cause and repeatable steps of any ICT-related incidents. This is crucial to building trust and clearly explaining the incident to the stakeholders and regulatory authorities.

Digital Operational Resilience Testing

DORA encourages financial institutions to check their systems via regular tests, Threat-Led Penetration Testing (TLPT), stress testing, etc. These tests help confirm that their recovery systems, backup plans, and technical controls are working in real conditions.

Oversight of Third-Party ICT Providers

In Europe, many financial organizations depend on third-party ICP service providers, and this fourth pillar of DORA puts emphasis on managing risks associated with these external service providers. DORA requires firms to monitor these partners with the same care they apply to internal systems. This includes contract reviews, performance checks, risk ratings, and proper exit strategies. The focus is on avoiding service gaps caused by vendor issues.

Information Sharing

The fifth pillar encourages financial firms to share information related to cyber threats and incidents across trusted organizations. These exchanges must follow agreed rules and use safe channels. The goal of this information sharing is to raise awareness about incidents and improve collective resilience.

What DORA Expects From a Documentation and Requirements Standpoint

DORA puts heavy focus on how financial institutions define, track, document, and manage ICT requirements. Here is what it expects from any financial organization from a requirements management standpoint:

• Structured requirements: DORA expects well-defined and structured requirements. Each requirement should have clearly defined acceptance criteria.
• Linked controls: Each requirement should be connected with higher-level requirements, tasks, test cases, or technical steps that bring them to production.
• Documented ICT risk framework: Every financial institution must document its ICT risk management framework and must have records for its version updates, who has approved changes, and all.
• Traceable records: Auditors should be able to follow a straight path from risk to requirement to control to test result. This means the entire chain must stay linked, not stored in separate files.
• Consistent templates: For documents, audit reports, test cases, requirements, etc., organizations are required to use pre-defined templates to maintain consistency in requirements management for financial institutions.
• Live updates: When any requirements change, related requirements and documents must be updated to keep everything in sync.
• Vendor mapping: Each external provider must have requirements linked to their duties, risks, and service scope. This proves oversight.
• Evidence trail: Financial institutions are required to provide a clean chain of evidence for every incident. They should also document what they planned, how they executed and tested it, and how they prepared documentation for future review.

To fulfill the above DORA requirements, teams just don’t need a well-structured strategy, but also a requirements management platform. That’s what we are going to discuss in the next section.

How a Requirements Management Software Like Modern Requirements4DevOps Helps With DORA Compliance

Modern Requirements4DevOps is a requirements management tool built for highly regulated industries, such as insurance, finance, banking, government, etc., that directly works within Azure DevOps. Here is how it helps to comply with DORA requirements:

• Offers a single source of truth: As Modern Requirements4DevOps works directly within your Azure workspace, you get all requirements management features in one place, and you don’t need to switch between tools.
• Traceability across systems and risk controls: DORA expects organizations to link each requirement with test cases, relevant tasks, and all. MR4DevOps allows the creation of horizontal and intersection matrices with a single click and visualizes the relationship between existing work items.
• Managing regulatory changes over time: DORA expects to record every change in requirements. The version control feature of MR4DevOps helps teams to check the history of requirements or document upgrades. Furthermore, baselines help teams compare old and new versions. Also, the impact assessment feature helps in tracking how a change in a particular work item can affect other existing work items.
• AI for requirements management: Copilot4DevOps works with Modern Requirements4DevOps, which is an AI assistant for requirements management. It helps draft requirements and test cases so that no requirements are missed. It also enables AI-based analysis of requirements, helping teams ensure that all ICT requirements are DORA-compliant.
• Approval trails for every change: MR4DevOps offers a review management feature, which records the e-signature of change approvers and timelines of changes. This matches DORA’s expectation for clear roles, accountable updates, and verifiable decisions.
• Consistent templates for risk, testing, and incident workflows: The SMartDocs feature lets teams create live-in documents, in which they can drag-and-drop existing requirements. So, whenever any requirements change, the document automatically updates. It also offers pre-built templates to manage DORA compliance, which helps in generating consistent documents.
• Automating audit readiness and evidence collection: During testing or incident review, evidence files can be attached directly to the related requirement or control. At audit time, regulators see the proof in one view rather than across multiple folders.

This way, Modern Requirements4DevOps can help any financial institution to make their ICT system DORA-compliant.

If your institution is preparing for DORA or looking to strengthen operational control, now is the right time to upgrade your requirements process by starting a 30-day free trial of Modern Requirements4DevOps.