What is Requirements Traceability Matrix (RTM) ?

Requirements Traceability Matrix (RTM) is a right way of documenting to keep, all the requirements which was proposed by the client or developer team, with there traceability at the conclusion of the life-cycle.

In simple words we can say that RTM (Requirements Traceability Matrix) is a document that map out and track all the requirements of user with the help of test cases.The main intention of the Requirements Traceability Matrix,to check that all the test cases are covered or not,In the time of testing is there any functionality is miss to test.

Some Parameters for Requirements Traceability Matrix:-

1. Requirement ID
2. Risk
3. Requirement Type
4. Requirement Description
5. Trace to Design Specification
6. Unit Test Cases
7. Integration Test Cases
8. System Test Cases
9. User Acceptance Test Cases
10. Trace to Test Script

Types of Traceability Matrix:-

In general we can distribute in 3 types of Traceability Matrix mention as :-

1. Forward Traceability
2. Backward Traceability or Reverse Traceability
3. Bi-directional Traceability

Forward Traceability:- Forward Traceability maps requirements to test cases.By using this matrix we can check which one requirement is covered in which test case or we can check the project status in the expected direction and for the correct product.

Backward Traceability:- Backward Traceability maps test cases to requirements.By using this matrix we can check to ensure, current product remains on the right track or this traceability is also helpful when we want to identify that how many requirements are covered by a single test case.

Bi-directional Traceability:- Bi-directional Traceability matrix conform us that all requirements are covered by all test cases.This matrix contains both forward and backward traceability.