Implementing requirements traceability: a case study

Abstract

Many standards that mandate requirements traceability as well as current literature do not provide a comprehensive model of what information should be captured and used as a part of a traceability scheme. Therefore, the practices and usefulness of traceability vary considerably across systems development efforts, ranging from very simplistic practices just aimed at satisfying the mandates to very comprehensive traceability schemes used as an important tool for managing the systems development process. We present a case study of a systems development organization, employing a comprehensive view of traceability. A model describing the traceability practice in the organization, perceived benefits of such a scheme and lessons learnt from implementing it are presented.