Subconscious Requirements: The Fright of Every Tester

Abstract

Subconscious requirements are requirements that stakeholders do not explicitly ask for, but still expect to be present in a system. Such requirements are problematic to testers as they will easily be overlooked and not be included in the specifications and therefore may not be tested at all. Over time, less notable (non-) functional requirements tend to end up as subconscious. The development of ever more complex IT solutions adds to the occurrence of subconscious requirements. They do need to be tested, as ignoring them will lead to expensive rework or rejection. Due to the lack of specifications, tests can only rely on experiencebased techniques. To acquire the necessary experience, testers can turn to proven techniques from the requirements engineering discipline.