26 | Testing requirements
When requirements
go bad
In the first of a two-part series, Kurt Bittner, chief technology officer
at Ivar Jacobsen International shows how understanding the causes
for requirements errors can help prevent them.
T
hat error in requirements is - errors of conception
a contributing cause to the - errors of specification
failure of many projects is - errors of implementation
nothing new. It is easy to Each one of these types of errors has
attribute the problem to lack of clarity separate symptoms and causes, and
In the extreme case
in the requirements - that if only the each must be solved in a different way.
they may actually be
ambiguities could be eliminated all
contradictory, much
would be well. What is a requirement, really?
Ambiguous, unclear or incomplete Before talking about requirements
like the old logic teaser:
requirements are serious problems, errors, it's worth pausing for a moment
The following statement
to be sure, but they are not the to consider what requirements are. is true. The previous
sole source of requirements errors. A requirement is a statement that
statement is false. Taken
Requirements errors have many describes a desirable, or sometimes
sources, however, and ambiguous or a mandatory, aspect of a solution.
individually, each of
unclear requirements are only part The degree to which the requirement
these statements is clear
of the problem. In order to reduce is mandatory is often the subject of and unambiguous, but
requirements errors, it's worth lengthy scoping debates.
taken together they are
exploring a number of common types The observation that a requirement
nonsensical. It is easily
of errors to find their source and describes a solution is important,
strategies for dealing with them. For but at first this statement probably
possible for requirements
the purposes of discussion, I find it seems innocuous and perhaps even, to exhibit the same
useful to group requirements errors well, obvious. The importance
qualities.
into three major categories: of recognising a requirement as
T.E.S.T | September 09 www.testmagazineonline.com
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