SoberIT

Software Business and Engineering Institute

Requirements Traceability

1.4.2001

Virve Leino
QURE Project
Software Business and Engineering Institute
Helsinki University of Technology

HELSINKI UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY

SoberIT
Software Business and Engineering Institute

Contents
Definition of requirements traceability

Benefits of requirements traceability

Factors affecting the need for traceability

Traceability classes and relation types

Techniques to document traceability

Tools to document traceability

Tasks to implement traceability

Lessons learned in QURE -project

HELSINKI UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY

SoberIT
Software Business and Engineering Institute

Requirements traceability
A requirement is traceable if you can discover:

who suggested the requirement,

why the requirement exists,
what requirements are related to it and
how it relates to other information such as
systems design, implementation and
documentation.

HELSINKI UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY

SoberIT
Software Business and Engineering Institute

Benefits of Requirements Traceability

Traceability helps in:

Requirements change management

Validation and reuse of requirements

Understanding how and why the system meets

the needs of the stakeholders

HELSINKI UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY

SoberIT
Software Business and Engineering Institute

Factors affecting the need for

traceability
Type of the system
Estimated system lifetime
Number of requirements
Size of the project team
Level of organizational maturity
Specific customer requirements

HELSINKI UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY

SoberIT
Software Business and Engineering Institute

Traceability classes 1/2

Pre- and post-traceability

Pre-traceability Post-traceability

Origins of System process

requirements Requirements artifacts

HELSINKI UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY

SoberIT
Software Business and Engineering Institute

Traceability classes 2/2

Forward and backward traceability

Forward traceability

Origins of System process

requirements Requirements artifacts

Backward traceability

HELSINKI UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY

SoberIT
Software Business and Engineering Institute

Traceability relation types

:-) People 4
3
Components
Rationales
5
2 Requirements

1
Sources like: 6 Verification
companies cases
standards

1) requirement-source 4) requirement-requirement
2) requirement-rationale 5) requirement-component
3) requirement-people 6) requirement-verification
HELSINKI UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY
SoberIT
Software Business and Engineering Institute

Techniques to
Document Traceability Information 1/3

1. Identifiers

2. Attributes

3. List

4. Table

example of each technique follow...

HELSINKI UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY

SoberIT
Software Business and Engineering Institute

Techniques to document 2/3

1. Requirement-requirement information documented using
requirements identifiers:
GCS-UI-1 The user interface shall have grid facilities.

GCS-UI-1.1 The editor shall provide a grid facility where a matrix of horizontal and
vertical lines provide a background to the editor window.

GCS-UI-1.2 The numbers of units separating grid lines shall increase when used in the
reduce-to-fit mode.

2. Requirement-source and requirement-verification

documented using requirements attributes:
GCS-UI-1 The user interface shall have grid facilities.

Source: Jukka Laakso, customer from company B.

Test cases: T-10, T-11, T-15

HELSINKI UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY

SoberIT
Software Business and Engineering Institute

Techniques to document 3/3

3. Requirement-component information documented
using list:
Requirements Components implementing the requirement

UI-1 UI-9 User interface component, existing window manager

Network component, error handler component, existing network
SAF-1 SAF-5
hardware
SAF-6, SAF-7 Security component

4. Requirement-component information documented

using table:
Components
C-UI C-WM C-NET C-SEC
UI-1
Requirements

X X
UI-5 X X
SAF-3 X
SAF-7 X

HELSINKI UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY

 SoberIT
Software Business and Engineering Institute

Tools to
Document Traceability Information
General purpose tools (eg. spreadsheet programs, word
processors, hypertext editors)
suitable for small and short term projects

not sufficient for extensive requirements tracing purposes

Requirements management tools

suitable for projects producing large and complex systems

require investments (eg. licences, training end-users,

system maintenance, consultation)

HELSINKI UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY

SoberIT
Software Business and Engineering Institute

Tasks to Implement Traceability

Analyze the companys need for traceability

Define which traceability relations should be

documented

Select techniques and tools to be used

Choose when, by whom and to where

information should be documented

Ensure that practices are taken into use

HELSINKI UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY

SoberIT
Software Business and Engineering Institute

Lessons Learned in QURE -project

Pre-traceability: Post-traceability:

first traceability that many prerequisites:

companies could benefit clearly stated
from requirements,
easy to document components and
(compared post- verificaton-cases
traceability) tool support is often
tool support is not needed needed to document it

HELSINKI UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY