The good, the bad and the ugly – why requirements matter

Testers need the requirements for the system under test as their input. High-quality requirements are essential for proper testing. In practice, this quality is often found to be disappointing.

From the Boehm curve, we learn that defects in requirements are among the worst ones: late discovery, costly fixes. However, for a tester, it is not always easy to recognise bad requirements. This may result in false negatives or even missing some defects.

In this presentation, I will highlight key elements of professional requirements engineering. This allows testers to distinguish good from bad requirements, and even to detect the ugly (e.g., inconsistent, contradictory or missing). 

In any development approach, testers should always start with an early review of their input. There are several ways of dealing with defects in requirements. In all cases, testers should analyse the resulting risks.