To me answer to the following practice question seems to be choice (a). But that would also mean the creation of RTM should come before Project Planning phase - is my assertion correct?
You are in the planning phase of a project and find that, due to a miscommunication, additional features were added to the product. These were not requested by any of your stakeholders. Which of the following could help you avoid such a situation?
This is another poor quality practice question. If we are planning a project, we don't have an approved scope baseline yet. As such, requirements might still be fluid. If it said that we were past the point where a baseline had been set, then it would be a better question, but it's a toss up between the RTM and the WBS. The former will identify the source of requirements and trace them back to business objectives and higher level benefits whereas the latter reflects 100% of the scope of the project which supports determination of what's in and what's not. So both could help...
It is a bit of an incorrect assumption on your part. Prior to the planning phase, you generally have at least high level customer requirements. Developing the RTM however originates in the planning phase. The RTM traces the requirement from the source, through the verification artifacts.
Customer requirements are one of the sources used to develop a comprehensive list of required functions/features, along with requirements from other sources like regulatory.
Overall it's not a very well written question (very common in practice exams). The generation of your full set of requirements and functional decomposition falls into the role of Business Analyst or Systems Engineering. Also, requirements while related to functions or features are not the same thing. In many cases, the function/feature is HOW a requirement is met. Example: A safety requirement for a car to contain a passenger in a crash, is met by a feature such as a seat-belt.
The RTM however can be used to determine if a function/feature is actually a requirement "must have" vs. a "nice to have", and where that requirement comes from, so the correct answer would still be (a). Saving Changes...
