Writing Good Test Requirements

This workshop has been designed to assist testers to understand better, 'what are test requirements?', how and when should we use them, and 'for which purpose'. We shall also discuss the pros and cons of using test requirements. In order to exercise test requirements, we will briefly discuss requirements engineering aspects, and identify the common fit palls that might be found in requirements - which might make them untestable. The problem of poor requirements is well known: poorly defined requirements lead to poor quality products and a high cost of rework with the testers often being blamed for not doing enough testing! According to industry experts such as DeMarco and Boehm, poor requirements might consume as much as 75% of overall rework costs. The solution is also well known: early involvement by testers in the requirements process, and in this workshop we shall see an addition to that – write and exercise test requirements. Writing test requirements is a step on the way to writing good requirements, it is related to as the Validation phase in the development of requirements process. In the workshop hints and tips will be suggested as to how to develop and recognize good, testable requirements, how to develop good test requirements and how to organize the test requirements in a test requirements hierarchy.

Software quality engineers, testers, project managers & test managers who have a good understanding of software testing principles, techniques and methods yet are still struggling with software quality issues due to poorly defined, missing or inadequate requirements, are lacking test requirements phase in their test design process, and would like to improve it. Professionals who seek ways to improve their test design, getting the test team closer to the business, and enable easier test case writing, while improving the requirements.