Verification

The Traceability Chain

A useful mental model for how engineering documentation fits together:

Business Need
    ↓
Requirements (what)
    ↓
Acceptance Criteria (how to verify what)
    ↓
Design (how to build it)
    ↓
Implementation
    ↓
Tests (based on acceptance criteria)

Key Principles

1. Traceability is Key

Every requirement should link to:

• a design element
• one or more acceptance criteria
• one or more tests

2. Avoid Mixing Levels

Common mistakes:

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Acceptance Criteria

Acceptance criteria define how you prove a requirement is satisfied. They are concrete, verifiable, written in behavior terms, and often expressed as scenarios or rules.

Common Formats

Rule-based

Given X, system shall do Y.

Scenario-based (Given / When / Then)

Given a valid batch recipe, When the user starts execution, Then the system shall validate parameters before proceeding.

Key Properties

• Binary outcome — pass or fail, no ambiguity
• Focus on observable behavior — not implementation details
• Directly usable for testing — a tester can derive test cases

Relationship to Requirements

Think of acceptance criteria as the test contract for a requirement. Every requirement should link to one or more criteria.

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