Software quality through the traceability of requirements specifications

Abstract

The paper argues that quality assurance must begin with quality software requirements specification (SRS) and that by preserving the link between a customer's requirements definition and the SRS, the quality of a software system can be assured beyond first release. Without such a link, it would be difficult to properly analyse the effect of related or inconsistent requirements because the reason for their existence in the final SRS document has been lost, an example of forward and backward tracing requirements through the business and system models developed during analysis and design is given. Areas of further research are then identified.