What Is Requirements Traceability?

In the broadest terms the RTM is simply a matrix of requirements showing each requirement’s relation to something. It could be the source for the requirement or the design component that describes the implementation of the requirement. Or it could be the test case(s) that covers the requirement. Just think of a spreadsheet with a list of requirements, a unique ID for each requirement, and the corresponding relationship.

Advantages of Using the RTM

The tool itself is very straight forward - it’s the proper use of the tool that provides benefit to your project. The RTM is not something that is used solely by the analysts or testers - it is something that the entire team utilizes.

Ensure Complete Test Coverage

How do you approach defining your test cases? More importantly, how do you know when you’re done? If you use a RTM, you always know the answer to this. As you plan out each test case, decide which requirements each test case will cover - then map those in the RTM. When all requirements are matched against a test case, you’re done (though you’ll probably still want to look at special cases, alternative tests, etc…).

Help Focus Testing

Along with knowing when your test coverage is complete, a RTM can help reduce unnecessary focus on the same set of requirements. You can quickly see in the matrix when a requirement is covered and avoid continuing to assign more test cases to it.

Validation of Requirements Consistency

I’m not suggesting that testers are responsible for validating requirements - we’re not. This should be done during requirements reviews and walkthroughs, and if problems are not caught there, they should certainly be found during technical design. But the reality of life is that these things are often not done as well as they should be, and requirements sometimes conflict with each other. You may have one requirement state that all numeric input fields are integer, and then another one that states that input field #5 on screen #2 is a numeric field with precision to 2 decimals. Using a RTM can help find these kind of problems.

Permit Prioritization

Another question for you - you’ve just been given the system by the development team and have been asked by management to do a quick assessment of quality. How would you approach this? There are probably numerous ways to attack this, but one way is to look at the RTM and see which set of test cases would cover the largest set of requirements and do those first.

Provide Proof of Testing

Your sponsor asks you “How do you know you’re done with testing? Did you test everything?” With a RTM it’s easy to provide the proof.

Help With Future Projects

Finally, if you have a system to collect the right kind of data, you can provide valuable insight to management for future work. Which requirements resulted in the most defects? Which requirements had the most Change Requests performed? Data like this allows management to assess high risk areas of the application and plan against those risks in the future.

Courtesy: Internet