As a Platform QA Engineer, I am often being asked to verify product requirements. In general, these requirements will change from one project to the next and are unique to a particular product. In this portion of the Verifying Requirements series, we’ll look at requirements clarification. First I start with the information provided in the product specs and ask the customer to clarify the user scenario that drives the requirement. What should be tested? How should it be tested? Why should it be tested?

For example, a customer provided us with their product spec, and I was asked to verify their product from this spec. One particular line caught my attention.

The line refers to a data point from the battery specification. It was not an exact match, but it was close to the intended requirement.

The 30% CPU load reflects the user scenario for this device.  Examining the data more closely, questions arise about the exact nature of the user scenario. This is where clarification and communication with the customer is imperative. I needed to clarify with the customer what components will be ON, and what power states they were expected to be in. What level will the Backlight be set to?  Will the device go into a sleep state? Will the Bluetooth port be ON or OFF?  Will the WiFi port will be ON or OFF?  Will the device wake up from events?  Will the CPU frequency speed be changing? We can see where a single requirement can lead to many clarifying questions. In the next installment we’ll move on to looking at what needs to be measured to verify this requirement.

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Mauricio Soto and Patrick Potter
BSQUARE Professional Engineering Services QA Team
BSQUARE Corporation | Contact Me!