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Difference between RTM and Test Traceability Matrix

Last post 05-20-2009 10:53 AM by Anonymous. 1 replies.
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  • 05-20-2009 10:26 AM

    • Nisha
    • Top 50 Contributor
    • Joined on 03-05-2009
    • Posts 5

    Difference between RTM and Test Traceability Matrix

     What is the difference between RTM and traceability matrix. What would be the risk of not doing the activities.

    I am also preparing a presentation to explain the project teams of what would be the risk of not following the processes during the SDLC life cycle (Example: what would be the risk of not doing the estimation, what would be the risk if there is a frequent change in requirements, what would be the risk of not raising a CR for the changes, what would be the risk of not doing reviews, impact analysis and so on).

    Can anyone share any there views, PPT's white papers, links and other useful resources that would help me in preparing the deck.

    Thanks in advance

    Nisha

  • 05-20-2009 10:53 AM In reply to

    Re: Difference between RTM and Test Traceability Matrix

     I am going to punt a little here and guess that RTM stands for Requirements Traceability Matrix and say, no difference! However, since it is spelled out in all caps like that (RTM), I will also guess that it is probably one group's/organization's/standard's defintion of what a traceability matrix should be.

    For me, the primary traceability is Source -> Group -> Requirement -> Test.

    I go up from the test in case of questions, clarifications, and prioritization. I trace to a test for 1) a test is a great validator that I have a well stated requirement (a good reason to do test driven development) and 2) to prove the requirment as implmented. The risk factor there is without a trace, you have little to "show" that the requirement was implemented in a sequential project. Agile does "traceability" by demonstrating the completed Story at the end of the iteration.

    The basic risk of not doing things well (process, etc.) is rework. That is, we have to do the work over again. Our studies of organziations see well over half of their effort on software development projects is rework of upstream mistakes. Don't do it right the first time you get to do it again.

    As for the general stuff, we have a lot of stuff on our commercial site (www.construx.com) and SEI has a lot of that kind of stuff at SEIR (https://seir.sei.cmu.edu/SEIR/).

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