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Ask HN: How do you keep track of software requirements and test them?

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Ask HN: How do you keep track of software requirements and test them?

#1

Post by lovehatesoft »

I'm a junior dev that recently joined a small team which doesn't seem to have much with regards to tracking requirements and how they're being tested, and I was wondering if anybody has recommendations.

Specifically, I would like to track what the requirements/specifications are, and how we'll test to make sure they're met? Which I don't know if this could be a mix of unit and integration/regression tests? Honestly though if this is maybe even the wrong track to take, I'd appreciate feedback on what we could be doing instead.

I used IBM Rational DOORS at a previous job and thought it really helped for this, but with a small team I don't think it's likely they'll spring for it. Are there open source options out there, or something else that's easy? I thought we could maybe keep track in a spreadsheet (this to match DOORS?) or some other file, but I'm sure there would be issues with that as we added to it. Thanks for any feedback!

Re: Ask HN: How do you keep track of software requirements and test them?

#3

Post by spaetzleesser »

We use a system called Cockpit. It’s terrible to say the least.

I have never seen a requirements tracking software that worked well for large systems with lots of parts. Tracing tests to requirements and monitoring requirements coverage is hard. For projects of the size I work on I think more and more that writing a few scripts that work on some JSON files may be less effort and more useful than customizing commercial systems.

Re: Ask HN: How do you keep track of software requirements and test them?

#4

Post by amarant »

I'd go for integration or end-to-end tests, depending on your application. Name each test after a requirement and make sure the test ensures the entirety of that requirement is fulfilled as intended(but avoid testing the implementation).

As an example, you could have a test that calls some public API and checks that you get the expected response. Assuming your requirement cares about the public API, or the functionality it provides.

I've tried to be as detailed as I can without knowing much about your application: assumptions were made, apply salt as needed.

Personally, I like having a test-suite be the documentation for what requirements exist. Removing or significantly modifying a test should always be a business decision. Your local Jira guru will probably disagree

Re: Ask HN: How do you keep track of software requirements and test them?

#6

Post by zild3d »

I was at lockheed martin for a few years where Rational DOORS was used. Now at a smaller startup (quite happy to never touch DOORS again)

I think the common answer is you don't use a requirements management tool, unless it's a massive system, with System Engineers who's whole job is to manage requirements.

Some combination of tech specs and tests are the closest you'll get. Going back to review the original tech spec (design doc, etc) of a feature is a good way to understand some of the requirements, but depending on the culture it may be out of date.

Good tests are a bit closer to living requirements. They can serve to document the expected behavior, and check the system for that behavior

Re: Ask HN: How do you keep track of software requirements and test them?

#7

Post by PebblesHD »

Given the large, monolithic legacy nature of our backend, we use a combination of JIRA for feature tracking and each story gets a corresponding functional test implemented in CucumberJS, with the expectation that once a ticket is closed as complete, it is already part of ‘the test suite’ we run during releases. Occasionally the tests flake, it’s all just webdriver under the hood, so they require maintenance, but to cover the entire codebase with manual tests even if well documented would take days, so this is by far our preferred option.

Re: Ask HN: How do you keep track of software requirements and test them?

#9

Post by PebblesHD »

PebblesHD wrote: post #7

Given the large, monolithic legacy nature of our backend, we use a combination of JIRA for feature tracking and each story gets a corresponding functional test implemented in CucumberJS, with the expectation that once a ticket is closed as complete, it is already part of ‘the test suite’ we run during releases. Occasionally the tests flake, it’s all just webdriver under the hood, so they require maintenance, but to c…

As a bonus, we run the suite throughout the day as a sort of canary for things breaking upstream, which we’ve found to be almost as useful as our other monitoring as far as signalling failures.

Re: Ask HN: How do you keep track of software requirements and test them?

#10

Post by clintonb »

1. Start with a product/project brief that explains the who, why, and what if the project at a high level to ensure the business is aligned.

2. Architecture and design docs explain the “how” to engineering.

3. The work gets broken down to stories and sub-tasks and added to a Scrum/Kanban board. I like Jira, but have also used Asana and Trello.

Testing is just another sub-task, and part of the general definition of some for a story. For larger projects, a project-specific test suite may be useful. Write failing tests. Once they all pass, you have an indication that the project is nearly done.

You can skip to #3 if everyone is aligned on the goals and how you’ll achieve them.

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