In my early days of business analysis, I was often given the task of writing and executing test cases under the guidance of the more senior business analysts. I quickly learned that in order to gain their trust I needed to confidently and concisely show how my test cases verified the solution features meeting the requirements… That was the beginning of my passion for requirements traceability because really, what better way is there to ensure your final deliverables tie directly back to the original business need, avoid scope creep, minimize costs, increase quality and minimize the impact analysis effort and risk?

For those of you who haven’t already jumped on the requirements traceability bandwagon, you’re probably wondering what this is all about and how you can start using this now.

The BABOK defines Requirements Traceability as “The ability to identify and document the lineage of each requirement, including its derivation (backward traceability), its allocation (forward traceability), and its relationship to other requirements.”  

The benefits of using a requirements traceability matrix are:

Improved scope management
Allows for more effective management of change and helps prevent scope creep
Provides better test coverage, minimizes costs and increases quality
Test cases can be traced back to the requirements which can then traced back to the     business needs allowing for ease of validation that sufficient testing has occurred and the solution meets defined quality standards. This prevents inefficient or inadequate testing which decreases project costs as well as preventing an inferior quality product from being released
Minimize impact analysis effort and risk
If a requirement cannot be fulfilled, derivation will easily identify which business needs and stakeholders are impacted
Conversely if business needs change, allocation will identify which requirements and solution components are impacted
This allows for easier assessment of risks of potential changes

Every BA I’ve had a hand in training over the years has heard me preach the importance of requirements traceability and why it is necessary. Those who haven’t employed requirements traceability have at one time or another ran into a situation that became more complicated than it otherwise would have been… from spending hours trying to figure out the impact of a scope change and still not being confident in their recommendation, to realizing that a certain feature was not tested and did not meet quality standards after the solution had already been deployed.

If you don’t use requirements traceability matrices today, I challenge you to use this with your next project and see the benefits for yourself.