What is Requirement Traceability Matrix (RTM)? Example Template

Requirement Traceability Matrix (RTM) Meaning: When you have attended for an interview, then that time, you face a question regarding what is requirement traceability matrix? So in this post, we are going to discuss the requirement traceability matrix briefly in detail and also about how you can create a requirement traceability matrix.

What is the Traceability matrix?

Traceability matrix is a document or artifacts that co-relates any two based lined documents having a many-to-many relationship and also helps to check the completeness of the relationship. By this document, the client can easily find out or track their requirements and also can validate that it covers the entire project requirement are met.

What is the Requirement Traceability Matrix?

Requirement traceability matrix ( RTM in testing ) is a high-level document which map and trace user requirement with test cases to ensure that for each and every requirement adequate level of testing is being achieved. The main purpose of the requirement traceability matrix is to see that all test cases are covered and confirm that no functionality is missed during testing the application. It also helps to identify coverage gaps. From this document, we can also get a clear idea about the number of test cases are run, passed, failed, and blocked, etc. for the requirement.

Check Master Plan Vs. Test Plan

RTM helps us in linking various artefacts like BRD, test cases, and defects accurately. As a parallel, we are going to work with various documents, so in that case, with the help of RTM, we can easily track everything. Also, it assures a good quality product as all the feature of that application is tested.

Purpose Of Requirement Traceability Matrix

The purpose of the Requirement Traceability Matrix [RTM], is to link the requirements collected during requirement specification analysis to the technical requirements and the test data. RTM specifies all the requirements and their traceability and delivered at the completion of the Software development lifecycle.

Creating RTM focuses on linking the requirements to the test cases and ensuring that no requirements are missed.The validation process during testing is traced by using the RTM.

Requirement Traceability Matrix contains the details as follows:

• Requirement
• Risks
• Type of the Requirement
• Design Specifications.
• Variety of Test cases ( Unit Test cases,Integration Test Cases,System Test Cases,User Acceptance Test Cases ).
• Test Script Validation.

Requirements Traceability Matrix Example

The Requirement Traceability Matrix is based on the Business Requirement  Document[BRD], Technical Requirement Document[TRD] and the Test Case Document.

For Example, Consider the Garment Stock Management System manages the stock and generates the reports on the completion of the production.

Consider the feature – “Adding Raw Items Required for each product“

The Business Development Document for this scenario is as given below:

BR #	Module	Roles	Description
BR1	Login and Logout	Admin, Manager, Employee	Admin: Login. Homepage with all the master settings.
BR2	Raw Material Management	Admin, Manager	Manage the Raw materials
BR3	Product  Management	Admin, Manager	Manage  the Products
BR4	Manage Product-Item Configuration	Admin, Manager	Add the product details, Configure each product with the corresponding raw items.
BR5	Order management	Admin, Manager, Employee	Order processing: Production order, Purchase Order

The process is, the manager should be able to set the product item configuration, ie.the raw materials required for the production of each product.

The Technical Requirement Document[TRD] for the scenario is given below:

TR#	Technical Requirement
TR120	The Product Name Should be selected
TR121	“Add More” button for  adding more RowItems
TR122	At least one Row Material should be given

The Requirement Traceability Matrix [RTM] is created based on the below data.

Testcase#	Test Case	Tests	TestData	Expected Result
TC200	Verify the Product Name	Select the Product from the combo box.	Value=” BodyFit”	Should list the data in the Combo to get selected
TC201	Direct Entry in the Combo box	Try to enter direct values in the Combo box	Value=”Not Fit”	Should not accept direct entry in the combo box

• Step 1: Create the Test Case Document
• Step 2: Identify the Technical requirement matching this Test Case
• Step 3: Identify the Business Requirement(BR) for the TR found
• Step 4: Identify the Business Requirement in Test Case
• Step 5: Creating the Requirement Traceability Matrix by analyzing the above matrices and data

Business Requirement	Technical Requirement	Test Case
BR4	TR120	TC200
BR4	TR121	TC201

Types of Traceability matrix:

The traceability matrix is mainly divided into three types:

• Forward traceability: as the name, we can think about what it is used to ensure that the project progress in the forward direction, and we are building the right product as per the BRD. It also ensures that the product is developed and even tested thoroughly. It creates a map between the requirement document and test cases.
• Backward traceability: the main purpose of this is to ensure that we are developing the product on the right track and also helps to find out that no extra and unspecified functionality is added to the project. Because of that, the scope of the project is affected.
• Bi-directional Traceability: this is called bi-directional traceability because here, the mapping is done between requirement and test cases and vice versa. It ensures that all test cases can be traced to requirements, and for every requirement, you have specified valid and accurate test cases.

Advantages of RTM

• From the document, we can find out the % of test coverage. So, it helps to get 100% test coverage.
• It also helps us to find the missed functionality of the product easily.
• When some requirement changes happen than from the requirement traceability matrix, we find out easily that which test cases need to be updated.
• As we track the execution status of the test cases, so it also helps us to find out the test execution status.
• The important benefit of using RTM is that RTM ensures full test coverage without failure.
• Analyses all the test cases, compares the test cases with the technical requirements and the business requirements.
• Detects any missing requirement effectively.
• RTM can reduce the time for verifying the test coverage.

Traceability Matrix Requirements Helps In Deloping & Testing Project?

The RTM can be used to trace all the phases of the project development.It also assists the functionalities of process control and the quality management. RTM captures all the requirements specified by the client and the actual functioning of the requirements in the developer’s view.So, the document is helpful to trace whether all the requirements are completed to deliver the expected output.

The matrix can be used for the evaluation of the testing process.In some cases, the RTM can also be used as the test planning tool as it helps to determine how many tests are required.By analyzing the RTM the testers can identify the types of testing to be performed, the test tools required for testing and the needs of the re-tests for specific requirements.

The project Managers or The team leads are responsible for preparing the Requirement Traceability Matrix[RTM].The document will be updated with the subsequent changes by the team leads processing each module of the project.

The RTM is prepared when all the test case writings are completed and preparing the test environment or just before executing the test cases.This is the phase at which the project manager should ensure that no requirement missed while the project development.

There are a number of tools for generating Requirement Traceability Matrix[RTM], which are known as Test Management Tools.

Eg: HP-QC, QAComplete, QMetry, PractiTest etc.

Out of these Test management tools, HP Quality Control [ HP-QC] by Hewlett-Packard, widely used for the generation of Requirement Traceability Matrix.

Some features of HP-QC are given below:

• Requirements directly map to the Testcases: When RTM is created, by clicking on the defect will redirect to the relevant requirement and connected test cases.
• Email Notifications: Customized Email notifications to communicate the status of the defects and the reports.
• Analysis and Report: Allow the user to generate reports by using graphs, pie charts etc..
• MS Excel  Integration: Can integrate easily with MS Excel
• Easy Script Integration: Can  Integrate the Test Case  scripts  easily

Traceability Matrix Template: For creating the template some organization is used MS Excel and some organization is using some paid tools where you can able to write test cases and based on that it will automatically create Requirement Traceability Matrix (RTM) for you. Here is some such type of tool is qTest by using this tool, you can able to add test cases, prepare test plans, and also, based on the test cases, you can directly create the Requirement Traceability Matrix (RTM).

Conclusion

In this post of softwaretestingo, we are trying to discuss the requirement traceability matrix (RTM) briefly. If you are using RTM in your organization, then why don’t you share your inputs in the comment section so that it will help our QA friends.

To conclude, RTM is a complete document which can track the business requirements through the Requirement Definition, Analysis, Design, Development, and Test Strategy.The Developer and Programmer can never be wrong with the RTM, as the document tracks all the technical requirements, test cases, and the business goals.Establishing traceability helps the team to reduce leakage and wastage of the resources.