What is the purpose of Requirement Traceability Matrix?

Traceability means the ability to follow up on something (can be anything of your interest which ranges from files, products, etc.) in a sequential order to get some information on it.

Requitement Traceability Matrix-

Requirement Traceability is the process of studying about the life of requirements means its origin, its development phase and its subsequent usage.

Requirement traceability matrix is a document shows the relationship between work done and other artifacts. It manages the project requirement overall. There are many kinds of RTM.

Usually Traceability done in following ways:

• Forward Traceability– First the requirement is collected and all those requirements are mapped to test cases to ensure proper evolution of the product.
• Backward Traceability– The process is done in reverse way i.e., test cases are mapped to the requirements to check whether the final product has met the requirements or not.

Parameters included in RTM are:

• Requirement ID- Gives and listing numbers.
• Requirement Type- Grouping or categorizing the requirement.
• Test Cases Including Status.
• Requirement Description- Grouping or categorizing the requirement.

Important facts about the Requirement Traceability Matrix-

• Each requirement should have different unique Requirement ID and test cases should have different unique test case ID.
• Requirement traceability matrix should draw in excel where requirements IDs should be on one axis and test case IDs on another axis.
• Requirement traceability matrix should be creating as early as in the project.
• Requirement traceability matrix should be updated when a new test case is written.
• Requirement traceability matrix is very important document as it shows relationship between requirement and test cases and it is very useful for review purpose before the testing phase start.

We can create traceability matrix – First need to copy paste the requirement documents, then copy the test case from the test case documents. Copy pastes the test result and issues. Lastly update the requirement traceability matrix regularly.

• Setting the goal for completion of the projects.
• Collect artifacts for completion for the project.
• Prepare traceability template to trace the completion of the project.
• Adding the artifacts to complete project.
• Update traceability matrix regularly to see the completion of project.