Friday, December 19, 2008

RBT - Requirements-Based Testing

There is an interesting article in Embedded.com about requirements based testing and what it calls the "crisis in quality".

To do this, many organisations have recently embraced requirements-based testing (RBT).

Teams can be more effective using Requirements Based Testing because it enables them to target the root causes of quality issues by being tightly coupled with application requirements and integrated through various activities throughout the software lifecycle.

The challenge is to ensure these processes with existing QA and testing best practices. To that end, these suggestions to improve your RBT practices are offered.

Suggestion #1: test early and frequently, so testing becomes a parallel activity to the development process, a constant pursuit that spans all roles and makes all stakeholders aware of quality objectives.

Suggestion #2: test with your head, not your gut, to inject repeatability and method in to the test planning process, in order to make test coverage more predictable.

Suggestion #3 test with measurement and improvement in mind to quantify the status of deliverables and activities, so management can oversee quality initiatives across the IT application portfolio.

Risk-based testing