What Is a Requirements Traceability Matrix (RTM)?
A requirements traceability matrix is an integral part of an embedded system's life cycle. It helps organizations ensure that their products are safe and are meeting their intended standards. This is especially important for the medical, technology, and engineering industries. But any business that has a set of goals and standards to uphold can benefit from this proven requirements analysis tool. Here’s how to make an effective requirements traceability matrix and why you should start one today. What is a traceability matrix? A traceability matrix is a document that details the technical requirements for a given test scenario and its current state. It helps the testing team understand the level of testing that is done for a given product. The traceability process itself is used to review the test cases that were defined for any requirement. It helps users identify which requirements produced the most number of defects during a testing cycle. Not only does this show areas in need of improvement, but it also helps mitigate future roadblocks and identify process weaknesses. What is a requirements traceability matrix? A requirements traceability matrix (RTM) is a tool that helps identify and maintain the status of the project’s requirements and deliverables. It does so by establishing a thread for each component. It also manages the overall project requirements. This method is straightforward and can be easily done by anyone. There are many kinds of RTMs. For example, a test matrix is used to prove that tests were conducted. It can also be used to identify issues and requirements during the development of software. What are the benefits of a requirements traceability matrix? An RTM ensures that projects do everything they set out to do. This step-by-step process helps identify the requirements and the products that are required to be tested successfully. It also helps in determining the project's direction and timeline. First, it will support the identification of all requirements in a work product. Then, it will check to make sure there is coverage of all the requirements throughout the project’s lifetime. The RTM will show the requirements coverage in terms of the number of test cases, design status, and execution status. It will also show the UAT status for a specific test case. With all this information at your fingertips, your team will be able to analyze changes in requirements and make informed product development decisions on the fly. And because traceability links artifacts across the development lifecycle, it helps teams identify and resolve issues before they become problems. It can also help avoid the pressure of an audit. And if you do get audited, having an RTM will make it easier to demonstrate that you have complied with regulations which means you can avoid additional expenses or delays the audit may cause. You can even use it to track requirements from compliance regulations in a compliance matrix. That will help you understand what you need to test and develop before the work is finalized. In a nutshell: a requirements traceability matrix makes it easier to meet goals and manage projects. What do you include in a requirements traceability matrix? Create a simple chart with the following columns: Requirements: Add sub-columns for marketing requirements, product requirements, and system-level specifications (if applicable). Testing: Add a sub column for test cases and test runs. Deviation: Add a sub-column for any issues. Requirements traceability matrix example Here is a basic requirements traceability matrix example, including a description of the requirements, their business justification, and the status of the task. How to create a requirements traceability matrix in Wrike The matrix should be created early in the project life cycle to ensure it is up-to-date and incorporates all the details necessary for the project to be successful. A project management tool like Wrike is perfect for tracking, organizing, and assessing every last rule. First, gather your requirements list. Add them as individual projects in Wrike. Assign a due date, priority level, and set of corresponding tasks needed to achieve compliance to each one. Next, each requirement must have a unique and clearly defined purpose. Add these details to the project or corresponding task description so that the assignee fully understands what they are trying to achieve. Then, you can also use Wrike to securely plan for and store related materials. Supporting documents such as test scripts should be prepared ahead of the actual testing process. Simply create a task, set an approver, and add the final product to your Wrike files. Control who sees it with secure sharing. Finally, identify gaps in coverage. If any defects are found during the test cases, then they can be listed and mapped with business requirements and test scenarios. In Wrike, you can assign each one to an individual or team. You can also add an Approver who will sign off on the task once it’s complete. If there are any questions or comments, the collaborators can discuss them right within the task themselves, looping in colleagues using @mentions whenever another POV is needed. If a change request is made, you can view your existing project plans and give an informed evaluation of whether or not it can be done. If the answer is yes, you can then drag and drop project components for a new and accurate timeline. In Wrike, projects with tasks marked as dependent on one another will maintain these connections, so when you move them, you’ll still have all of your necessary components tied together, working uninterrupted. Once your RTM is complete, you can duplicate your processes and workflows in Wrike by creating a template for the ones you plan to repeat. This saves time and adds a layer of standardization that is crucial for meeting requirements. And because the testing process should be clearly defined to avoid any confusion, using Wrike to do so will ensure that it is carried out according to the requirements and time constraints. Wrike provides a secure collaborative workspace to organize, test, and bring all your projects up to speed with your RTM. Ready to streamline your product development compliance? Start today with a two-week free trial of Wrike.
A Definitive Guide to Choosing IT Metrics
A metric is a unit of measurement. In project management, for example, metrics are used to track progress based on goals or critical success factors. In this guide, we’ll teach you everything you need to know about IT metrics and why they are so important. Keep reading to discover what standard IT metrics are, how to choose your IT metrics, best practices for choosing, and potential challenges when working with them. Stay tuned until the end to discover a project management tool you can use to define, monitor, and analyze your IT metrics. What are the standard IT metrics? Standard IT metrics are the quantifiable values used by IT industry leaders to measure the value of technology, productivity, and output to the business. They help them manage the business of IT PMO and demonstrate how technology can improve the bottom line. Here are the must-know terms: Time to resolve Time to resolve is the shorthand for MTTR (mean time to resolve) and refers to the average time it takes to resolve a failure. SLA breach rate SLA stands for Service Level Agreement and a breach refers to a break in that agreement. The SLA breach rate defines the total monetary fee for violating the contract terms. User satisfaction The user satisfaction score is a widely-employed metric that measures how much respondents do or do not enjoy a product or service. The survey asks respondents to rate the level and typically uses a small scale such as 1-10, with higher numbers meaning more satisfaction and lower numbers meaning less satisfaction. Cost per contact The cost per contact is the sum of all costs involved in running a contact center. It is often divided by the number of contacts that were handled. Service availability Service availability is the percent measurement of how accessible a service is during the time when you promised to keep it. It typically refers to digital products and software. Incident counts Incident counts are the number of reports made to the service desk regarding issues with the product. Downtime Downtime refers to the total amount of time a product is not available to users for events such as scheduled maintenance or security threats. How to choose IT metrics As you can see, there are a lot of IT metrics to choose between. Like with any professional services management project, the key is to make sure that the metrics you choose are aligned with your goals. There are two main categories of metrics: service and operations. IT service metrics: IT service metrics are the process of applying knowledge and expertise to enable organizations to improve their operations. They often provide resolutions for issues that users experience when using the product. IT operations metrics: The mission of the IT operations department is to provide the necessary tools and services to enable organizations to manage their hardware and software. This includes the development and deployment of software and hardware solutions. Best practices for choosing your IT metrics If our goal is to achieve a specific outcome, then choosing IT metrics that help us evaluate how well we're executing our strategy makes sense. However, many metrics are neglected simply because they don't match the goals of the product or the organization. In order to choose your IT metrics, you’ll need to start by learning more about which ones correspond with your next big project management goal. From there, you’ll want to narrow down your top choices to only the IT metrics that directly tie back into your benchmarks. It’s also good to think about how the IT metrics you’ve chosen may affect how your team works. In general, choosing IT metrics may motivate employees to work faster. Known as the observer effect, simply seeing how they are being measured in real time will increase the speed of their output. But when it comes to influencing behavior, you may find that a particular set of IT metrics will push your team in a direction you don’t want them to go in. So make sure to consider the real-world impact these goalposts will have on your unique team. The challenges of choosing IT metrics Hyperfocus on metrics When choosing IT metrics, we should be aware that we are not adding more goals on top of those we already have. Instead, IT metrics serve as a tool to quantify progress made toward the PMO’s goal. They are not goals in and of themselves, even if we plan to improve their numbers. Focusing too much on the IT metric progress may actually waste resources in the long run. Lack of balance As Bill Graff, SVP & CIO, Cerner Corporation, told The Enterprisers Project, managers will have to strike a balance between internal and external IT metrics. “To show IT’s real value to the organization, you need two sets of metrics,” shared Graff. “One internal-facing set focused on how you run your business on a day-to-day basis. This should include metrics such as turnaround time on support tickets, vulnerability remediation, budget adherence, and uptime/availability. The other set of metrics is external-facing. These metrics describe how the consumers are using your services, their satisfaction, and how they add to the company’s bottom line.” Overly complex management Another one of the challenges of choosing IT metrics is complexity. The complexity of an organization’s adaptive systems makes it hard to determine which metrics are right for you. Most of the time, they cannot measure cause-and-effect behavior. Yes, it’s easy to create dashboards with metrics. But applying too many at one time will increase the complexity of our system and make our dashboards less useful. Using Wrike as an ITSM solution A good IT service management tool such as Wrike provides high quality and timely planning, reporting, and monitoring. All of this combined enables other teams and individuals to perform their jobs more effectively. Wrike’s tailormade ITSM template is the most commonly used framework to provide a base configuration and a sample data set. But it also provides support for Agile teamwork, project management performance monitoring, and complex projects with phases. You can use Wrike's predefined folder structure to create a hierarchy that takes into account what your team does and what type of work they deal with each day. Wrike also lets you keep track of all your tickets and IT project management issues and review all of your progress reports. These reports combine with visual dashboards that detail all of your team’s work alongside your chosen IT metrics so you can compare progress against these data points. Not to mention that you can seamlessly manage multiple open projects and requests in one centralized location. Ready to start using IT metrics to achieve your goals? Get started with organizing team workload and tracking these important KPIs using Wrike’s two-week free trial.
Wrike Enterprise Brings Extended IT Controls Over Contacts & External Apps
It has always been important for us to make Wrike flexible enough to fit any company’s needs. So when we received requests from our largest clients, asking for more granular IT controls, we decided to make it a priority. With the release of Wrike Enterprise, we've given admins extended IT controls, allowing you to decide which e-mail domains, file repositories and app integrations your team can access. It has always been important for us to make Wrike flexible enough to fit any company’s needs. So when we received requests from our largest clients, asking for more granular IT controls, we decided to make it a priority. With the release of Wrike Enterprise, we've given admins extended IT controls, allowing you to decide which e-mail domains, file repositories and app integrations your team can access. Fix Inaccuracies in Contact Data To err is human. But what if your team member made a typo in his own name when creating a Wrike account? An unfortunate slip like that can confuse the rest of the team. In Wrike Enterprise, you can verify the names and e-mail addresses that your team members use for Wrike signup. And if any contact data is inaccurate, admins can now correct it. Moderate Access to App Integrations Wrike is a central hub connecting all your files that are spread across different apps. However, if there is ever a need to restrict team members’ access to Box, Dropbox or Google Drive integrations, then Wrike Enterprise allows you to solve the problem in just a few clicks. Overall, Wrike Enterprise gives you the extended controls to make your corporate data extra secure and allow you to customize even the tiniest details. Drop us a line at https://www.wrike.com/contact-sales/ to try the new plan in action!
How to Write a Bug Report During Development
As a software designer or development project manager, you work hard to ensure the code you and your team produce is as flawless as possible. However, just like seasoned writers still make small errors from time to time, even highly experienced developers and software engineers make small coding errors that need to be caught before the final product is shipped. But it’s impossible to catch every error before release. That’s precisely why bug reports are so critical for development teams. In this article, we’re exploring how to write a bug report that will help your teams find and fix errors quickly and easily. We’ll also look at a bug report example and show you how Wrike can help you develop a software bug report template that will reduce time and energy spent creating bug reports in the future. Why bug reports are important First things first: what exactly are bug reports, and why are they so important to software development teams? Put simply, a bug report identifies an issue with a piece of software. Bug reports don’t have to be complicated, but they should contain enough detailed information that the developers can quickly understand exactly what the problem is, what specific action or actions triggered the bug, or if the issue happens sporadically with no identifiable cause. Bug reports are critical for any organization that writes code or develops software products because they help ensure quality control. Without proper testing and documentation of issues using bug reports, development teams may inadvertently ship a product that has a defect or error. How to write a good bug report So, what exactly makes a “good” bug report? Generally speaking, you want to keep your bug reports simple and to-the-point, yet detailed enough that the developers can easily identify the problem and implement a solution. To ensure that your development team gets everything it needs to solve the issue at the outset, structure your bug reports to include the following essential information: Bug name and a brief description Like any good report, your bug report should begin with a name and brief description of the problem so that the engineering team can know exactly what’s going on and what part or feature of the software is affected. Environment details Just like actual bugs can only survive in certain climates and conditions, virtual bugs may only appear in certain cyber-environments. In this section of the bug report, you’ll identify things like: The device or hardware you’re using when you encounter the bug, including the specific model The operating system you’re using The type of account you’re logged in with The version number of the application or program that you’re testing The type of internet connection you’re using, if applicable The number of times you’ve been able to reproduce the bug as well as how many times you’ve tried Steps to reproduce the bug Here, you’ll write out the exact steps you took that triggered the bug so that the developers can repeat the process and test it for themselves. The expected result What were you expecting to happen when you followed the steps outlined in section three of the report? Be as detailed as possible, and remember that it’s always more helpful for the developers to know what should have happened when you followed those steps instead of what should NOT have happened. The actual result This is the section in which you can tell the developers exactly what happened when you followed the steps that triggered the bug. Did the app crash altogether? Did it boot you out of the system? Did it display an error code? Remember to be as specific as possible. Simply saying, “The command didn’t work” isn’t exactly helpful. Proof Proof of the problem will go a long way in helping your programmers get to the bottom of the bug. Whether it’s a simple screenshot or a short video, try to include some sort of visual evidence with the report. Priority Finally, you can help your development team members better organize their work by rating or classifying the severity of the bug. Keep the rating scale simple — here’s an easy template: Mission-critical: this bug impacts or prevents user flow or app usage altogether Medium priority: this bug negatively impacts user experience Minor: everything else including formatting or layout issues, typos, etc. Bug report example Here’s an example of a simple bug report laid out in an Excel spreadsheet: Source: Marker.io How to create a bug report template in Excel As you can see from the example above, you can easily create a simple yet effective bug report template in Excel. First, make a column to contain the main bug report components, including the bug name and description, the environment, the steps to reproduce, the expected and actual results, and the assigned priority. You can also include a section to place a link to your proof, or you can simply attach any screenshots or video to the digital report when you email or otherwise transfer the bug report file to your development team lead or product manager. While Excel spreadsheets can help you get up and running with bug reports, managing these documents can be burdensome. Luckily, Wrike makes it simple to create a bug report template that can handle your organization’s growing needs. How to use Wrike to create the best bug reports With Wrike, you can easily create customized bug report templates that are perfectly suited to your organization’s specific needs and the various types of software development projects you routinely perform. What’s more, you won’t have to worry about keeping up with constantly changing spreadsheets that are exchanged via endless email chains. That’s because Wrike provides a single, unified platform to store, share, and maintain all the reports, updates, and other documentation associated with each individual project. You can get started with Wrike today and give your software engineers the detailed, organized reports they need to efficiently find and eradicate those bugs — try a free two-week trial today.
It All Adds Up: How Software Sprawl Is Cutting Into Your Agency's Profits
Creative agencies use so many tools today to make life easier, but does your team have too many? It’s called software sprawl and costing you more than you think. Read more to see how software sprawl is cutting into your business’ profits and how to solve it.
The Human Factor in IT Security: How Apathetic Employees Can Leave Your Business Vulnerable
Employee apathy is one of the biggest security liabilities of a company. So how can IT leaders increase employee engagement around security issues? Read more to learn why employee apathy about IT security happens and ways to improve employee engagement to prevent data loss or theft.
Top 3 Essential Technical Project Manager Skills
Technical project management is a growing field and a distinct subset of project management. Do you have the tools to keep pace with a world growing more digitized by the day? Learn the top three essential technical project manager skills you need to succeed as a TPM.
Top Tech Tool Features Small Businesses Need to Stay Productive
Deb Lee, a Digital Productivity Coach, Certified Professional Organizer, speaker, and Evernote Certified Consultant, shares the top tech tool features small businesses need to boost productivity and be more competitive. Here are her tips on what to look for when searching for the best apps for your company.
Do You Have a Cloud Computing Strategy?
These benefits made the UK-based nonprofit UKSA develop its own cloud computing strategy that included tools like Salesforce for CRM, Google Apps for e-mail and documents, and Wrike for marketing project management. To find out why this organization chose to make Wrike an essential part of its cloud computing practices, read the interview with Ciaran Rogers, marketing manager at UKSA.
