Traceability Metrics as Early Predictors of Software Defects?

Abstract

This paper investigates two metrics related to the traceability relationships that exist between requirements and architectural design. In particular, we look into cross-cutting requirements, i.e., requirements that are implemented by several components, and, conversely, into overloaded components, i.e., components that implement several requirements. The intuition is that intricate dependencies between requirements and architectural components might be the precursors of software defects. Using empirical data from one industrial application in the automotive domain, we study the predictive power of such metrics.