Why put requirements in your test plan?

Question

So recently I started playing around with adding requirements to my test plans. Seems like a solid concept and it's fantastic to have a link to reqs within test manager but I'm not sure I understand how this is beneficial to our testing due to the issues it seems to cause.

When you have a requirement you can't add test suite folders under it. I tried building a test suite and adding the req within it but not building test cases under it. Once linked, those test cases show up both within the folder I put them and under the requirement. This doubles the amount of tests it shows under my test plan properites as they appear in your test plan twice.  I've also noticed that I can't reorder tests when created under Requirement. I am just not seeing the benefits of this. Am I missing something? The MTM documentation doesn't appear to elaborate on the use of requirements within a test plan.

We are starting our third season on TFS and MTM and are still learning our way around things. Can someone shed some light on this whole thing?

Thanks in advance!!

Mike

Answer 1

Hi Mike,

If you need to sort your Requirement test suites then first create a static test suite then add your requirement test suites to the static test suite. So basically it is just reversing what you are doing. This stye of Test Plan organization lets you group your requirements. Some people like to sort by functional area of the application therefore use the static test suite then add the relevant requirements.

Having your requirements as a test suite allows you to report via query what test cases are testing a requirement and be able to quickly see the status from a testing perspective of each requirement/user story.

Hope this helps.

Debra

---

Debra Forsyth

Answer 2

Thanks for the reply Debra

I'm not sure I entirely followed what you said there but I guess I need to add more information...

Presently, we link all test cases to a requirement ( even when not adding the req to the test plan ). We use the standard tests/tested by relationship.  I noticed we have not used the ADD REQUIREMENTS button previously so I messed with it and immediately saw the advantage of having your requirements attached to the plan for quick access. That's when I noticed all the above items.

Perhaps requirements are not needed in our test plans and are causing me more confusion than it's worth. I just figured as it is a big button on my interface that it was the way Microsoft intended the tool to be used. It's just when I add them in it seems to ruin my ability to use folders to organize. As I noted, if I put the req within one of the folders it holds all test cases under it that I have linked to it thus doubling the numbers for cases in my test plan.

This is only my second season with the shop and in the QA field so I am flying blind here on a lot of stuff(but isn't it a fun way to learn?). I've been trying to find ways to improve how we use MTM and this is one of the areas I was investigating.

Mike

Answer 3

Hi Mike,

Hope this helps explain. In your case your going to use the Test Suite New > Suite to create folders then to your folders add the suite "Add Requirements". The New > Suite you get to name. Note that the New > Suite can itself just contain test cases however works nicely for organizing test cases into folders.

Debra

---

Debra Forsyth

Answer 4

That is an excellent explanation and I think I might see the issue and it's on our end. It looks in your example that your requirements are very specific therefore there might only be a few items under each requirement. We seem to use requirements on a much larger scale. For example "Add inventory management to the widget tool". That would have a massive document under it with a gazillion different individual items. Under that requirement I would have dozens of test cases that I want to further delineate with folders but don't have the ability. 

Perhaps the texture of how we use TFS doesn't lend itself well to adding requirements in MTM?

BTW, Thank you so much for your assistance. Our team is on a learn as we go plan and it's my personal goal to champion MTM

Mike

Answer 5

In your case you'd like to be able to add a test suite (New > Suite) to your "Requirement Test Suite". Cannot be done in MTM. However, I would suggest that your Requirement "Add Inventory Mgnt to Widget Tool" is more a User Case per say. I would suggest that the high level requirement be broken down into smaller child requirements which you'd then be able to handle better in testing and likely development.

example:

Requirment ID 1 Add Inventory to Widget Tool

 Children of that requirement

    Requirement ID 2 Create tables for inventory

    Requirement ID 3 Create ability to add to inventory

etc....

Then development could take advantage of the work item "Tasks" and your Test Cases would relate to the children requirements of the parent requirement. Plus you can use MTM to manage at a more granular level to the children requirements with the parent being the New > Suite.

Lots to think about.

---

Debra Forsyth

Answer 6

Exactly how I was thinking it. Unfortunately I am just a QA I and not the one who decides how we do things on a grand scale. Incidentally the widget thing is just something I made up for my example. Everything we do is proprietary so I have am not able to give actual data for example.

You have most definitely given me a clearer picture of how the requirements work in MTM and some goals to push for in the future as we continue to grow. Thanks bunchloads for taking to time to educate me and for the GREAT diagram of how things work in an ideal environment!!

Mike