What is the purpose of the Requirement Traceability Matrix?

A business analyst’s key responsibilities are to keep track of the requirements and make sure that no requirement is missed out. Tracking the project requirements are very difficult and challenging if requirements are so many and projects get delayed if requirements are not track on regularly

Requirement traceability matrix is the table that’s show may – many relationships between test cases and check the completeness of the relationship, primarily a traceability matrix is used to keep tabs on requirement’s and ensue fulfilment of the project requirements on time

Business requirements can be broken to software requirement which further broken down to functional and non – functional requirement. we are checking the requirement are on track or implemented as per plan and process so that current project requirements are met

RTM captured all the client and stack holder requirement in single documents and delivered in software development life cycle. Requirements are checked through test cases, so no functionality is unchecked or missed out during software testing

The main goal of each tester should be to understand the client requirement and its should be defect free .To achieve this goal business analyst should understand the the requirement thoroughly and create positive and negative testcases.

Business analysts should ensure that any requirements is not left out of the test cycle so simple way is to trace the requirement with its corresponding test cases and test scenario. Product managers use RTM is to confirm that all requirements will be accounted for I the testing phase. RTM usually helps to evaluate or check the impact of project requirement

Following parameter are included in requirement traceability matrix

Requirement ID

Requirement type and description

Test cases with status

Type of traceability matrix

Forward traceability

This used to check the project progress in right direction for right products .This matrix make sure of each requirement is applied to product and tested thoroughly. Its map requirement to test cases

Backward or reverse traceability

This is ensured whether current product remain on the right track. The idea or reason behind this type of traceability is to check and verify that team are not expanding the scope of the project by adding code, design, test or other work which is not specify in the requirement

Bi – directional traceability (forward + backward traceability)

This traceability matrix ensure that all the functional and non-functional requirement are covered by test cases

To create traceability matrix the business requirement documents ( BRD) and technical requirement documents),

RTM benefits in project completion:

• Easier and more effective
• Its help to track requirements when some changes or modification at some point In projects so RTM help you business analyst or project team to traces these sift or change
• Don’t forgot about the documentation and provide consistence documentation for project team
• Tracking defects and business analyst can track the most relevant or prioritized requirement / issue first

To make the RTM we can use excel sheet and create column for business requirement, functional and non-functional requirement, test cases and test results and bugs, then records each requirement from BRD with a requirement ID . Take the FRD and record all corresponding functional requirements, connect test cases IDs to functional req and finally update your traceability matrix when changes occur