| Task: Requirements Walkthrough |
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| Test team must review the requirements document to ensure that the requirements match user needs, and are free from ambiguities and inconsistencies. |
| Disciplines: Technical Reviews |
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Purpose
| Software requirements walkthrough is held to ensure adequacy, technical feasibility, completeness of the requirements, as
well as their relationship stated in the software requirements specification. |
Relationships
| Roles | Primary Performer:
| Additional Performers:
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| Inputs | Mandatory:
| Optional:
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| Outputs |
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Main Description
This activity basically comprises a meeting in which stakeholders involved are invited to inspect the
artifacts produced in the Requirements phase and point out possible defects and opportunities for
improvement.
In requirements walkthrough, the test team must review the requirements document to ensure that the requirements match
user needs, and are free from ambiguities and inconsistencies. It also improves the understanding of the test team
regarding what is desired of the application. In this activity, both functional and non-functional requirements are
reviewed. After finishing the review, a detailed report is generated that lists items of concern regarding the
requirements. It is held with user participation and all other groups that are directly affected by the requirements
should participate.
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Steps
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Plan for Requirements Walkthrough
This step serves as a guide to the requirements review activity. The plan is prepared in a meeting, in which the
review goals are established, as well as roles (basically: review leader [who will coordinate the review], author [one
who produced the artifact under review], reviewers, and recorder [responsible for the review report]), team size and
the right participants, i.e. stakeholders, are defined.
The requirements, use cases and traceability matrix to be reviewed are indicated, with clearly
stated objectives in view. It must be agreed upon by all members of the team.
In this planning, a checklist is design that guide and optimize the process.
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Prepare Requirements Walkthrough
The responsible for each requirement and use case specification, as being very familiar with the item under
review, is nominated the author. Its responsibility includes preparing a skilled presentation of
the material aimed at making the remaining team members able to build a comprehensive mental model of the
item so that it is possible to both evaluate its quality and detect defects.
Another in the team is nominated the review leader, who will actually later coordinate the progression of the
review.
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Conduct Requirements walkthrough
In this step a meeting which the involved stakeholders will be held. The coordinator chairs the meeting.
In this meeting, the requirements' author is supposed to present the material, without influencing the reviewers
into making the same logical errors as he did. The reviewers can discuss the documentation in order
to make suggestions where the material seems flawed or has potential for extension. If, during the presentation,
things are not clear enough, team members are allowed to ask questions in order to clarify aspects of the presented
material.
Reviewers must observe specific elements of the requirements, including aspects of traceability, variability,
binding-time, etc, according to the checklist provided.
It is critical that the group remains focused on the task they are involved with. The coordinator can help in this
process by restraining unnecessary discussions and lead the group in the right direction. Moreover, the Coordinator
should resolve disagreements when the team can not reach a consensus.
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Report the findings
After conducting the walthrough, all attendees must decide whether to accept/reject modifications in the artifact as
well as accept/reject the overall artifact. It will base the walkthrough report to be then produced.
A detailed report (Validation Report), including information regarding what was reviewed,
who reviewed, and what are the findings of the review is generated. It lists items of
concern regarding the requirements and use cases, i.e. problem areas within the product and corrections to be
made.
The Validation Report Template is available in Guidance folder.
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Key Considerations
The Use Cases must be also evaluated in this activity.
The major purpose here is to find defects. However, there may be times when participants drift from the main
purpose. The review leader, i.e. the moderator, needs to prevent this from happening and ensure that the
walkthrough focuses on the defects or weaknesses rather than identifying fixes or resolutions.
It is recommended to apply a time-box mode for the walkthrough. This will be helpful to avoid time wasting and/or
effectiveness loss.
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