PTC RV&S test management is an integral part of the application lifecycle. This integrated approach ensures complete test coverage of all requirements; stimulates collaboration between developers, quality assurance, and business analysts; and maximizes efficiency, collaboration and traceability. PTC RV&S can manage the process of test case development, test planning, and test execution, and report data and metrics from all phases of the testing process.

Requirements-based testing ensures that all requirements have tests planned and executed against them. PTC RV&S can be customized to perform test planning and execution against other artifacts in the development process, such as specifications and models.

The trace capability between requirements and test documents can be utilized further in test management as Integrity Lifecycle Manager 12.0 supports versioned test items. Consequently, version-based traceability can be implemented.

Tracing test cases to requirements helps in the breakdown and delegation of tasks by making it clear which items are related so they can be assigned to the same resources. It also gives test designers a good base to start test planning; they are not starting with a blank sheet every time, but already have a clear definition of what needs to be validated.

Business analysts can provide high-level descriptions for the test cases for their requirements. Their input into test case specifications ensures that their requirements will be adequately tested. Being able to trace test results back to the requirements that they are verifying makes test cases more visible in the system, which helps with planning and accountability. It also provides insight into the overall quality and completeness of deliverables through monitoring of test case completion and defect postings as a result of testing. All development changes made to fix the problem are directly linked to the defect, thus providing complete traceability back to the test case and the requirement.

Tracing test cases back to requirements is a task typically performed by the test engineer. In some instances, during the development of requirements, a business analyst may create stub test cases to identify the key testable parts of the requirement, but ultimately it's the responsibility of the test engineer to ensure adequate test coverage is established for the artifacts in the project.

Tracing test cases to requirements provides greater visibility of exactly what aspects of a system are going to be covered by testing activities and ensures that if a requirement is changed, the impact to testing is understood. Insight into the quality and completeness of deliverables is also provided by monitoring the completion of test cases and any failures and defect postings resulting from testing.