Conceptual Overview

In Reqvire, verification is the process of confirming that a system or its components meet specified requirements. Verification ensures that the system has been built right, checking whether it conforms to the defined functional and non-functional requirements at each level of system decomposition.

Verification activities are integrated into the requirements structure, maintaining clear traceability between requirements and their associated verification methods and test artifacts.

Verification Element Types

Reqvire supports several verification element types that align with standard systems engineering verification methods:

Primary Verification Types

  • verification - Default verification through testing (equivalent to test-verification)
  • test-verification - Formal testing with documented test procedures and expected outcomes
  • analysis-verification - Verification through systematic analysis of documentation or code without physical testing
  • inspection-verification - Verification through formal examination of documentation, code, or physical components
  • demonstration-verification - Verification through showing functionality in an operational-like environment

SatisfiedBy Requirements by Type

  • test-verification: MUST have satisfiedBy relations pointing to actual test implementations
  • analysis-verification, inspection-verification, demonstration-verification: Do NOT require satisfiedBy relations (considered satisfied by default)
  • trace relations: Always allowed for any verification type

Coverage Philosophy

Leaf Requirements Focus

Reqvire’s verification coverage focuses on leaf requirements - requirements that do not have forward relations to other requirements. These represent the actual testable functionality.

Coverage Rules:

  • Leaf requirements MUST be verified - these represent the actual testable functionality
  • Parent/intermediate requirements MAY be verified but it’s not a hard requirement as they might be covered in verification of leaf requirements
  • One verification may verify multiple leaf requirements (N:1 relationship)

Coverage Metrics

The verification coverage system tracks:

  • Verified leaf requirements: Leaf requirements with verifiedBy relations pointing to verification elements
  • Satisfied test-verifications: Test-verification elements with satisfiedBy relations pointing to actual test implementations
  • Unsatisfied test-verifications: Test-verification elements missing satisfiedBy relations (flagged as incomplete)
  • Coverage percentages: Calculated separately for leaf requirements verification and test-verification satisfaction

Two-Level Verification System

Reqvire implements a two-level verification approach:

  1. Requirements → Verifications: Requirements link to verification elements via verifiedBy relations
  2. Test-Verifications → Test Implementations: Test-verification elements link to actual test scripts/artifacts via satisfiedBy relations
### My Requirement
The system shall process data within 500ms.

#### Relations
  * verifiedBy: [Performance Test](tests/PerformanceTests.md#response-time-test)

---

### Performance Test
This test verifies response time requirements.

#### Metadata
  * type: test-verification

#### Relations
  * verify: [My Requirement](Requirements.md#my-requirement)
  * satisfiedBy: [test.sh](../../tests/test-performance/test.sh)

Bidirectional Traceability

Reqvire automatically maintains bidirectional relations:

  • When a requirement has verifiedBy: [Test A], the Test A element shows verify: [Requirement]
  • This ensures complete traceability in both directions

Coverage Reporting

Use Reqvire’s coverage report command to:

  • Identify unverified leaf requirements
  • Track test-verification satisfaction status
  • Generate coverage metrics and reports
  • Support quality assurance and compliance activities
# Generate coverage report
reqvire coverage-report

# Generate JSON coverage report for programmatic analysis
reqvire coverage-report --json

The coverage system will flag:

  • ✅ Satisfied test-verifications: Those with valid satisfiedBy relations to test implementations
  • ❌ Unsatisfied test-verifications: Those missing satisfiedBy relations
  • ✅ Analysis/inspection/demonstration verifications: Considered satisfied by default (no satisfiedBy required)