© 2011 Seapine Software, Inc. All rights reserved.

When Requirements Change: Continuing to Meet User Expectations with

Requirements Traceability

A Seapine Software Webinar

Peter Varhol

Solutions Evangelist, Seapine Software

© 2011 Seapine Software, Inc. All rights reserved.

Agenda

• What is requirements traceability?

• Why we care about traceability

• Traceability and changing requirements

• Approaches to traceability

• Summary and questions

© 2011 Seapine Software, Inc. All rights reserved.

What Is Requirements Traceability?

• Requirements traceability refers to the ability to

describe and follow the life of a requirement, from

conception to deployment

• Documents relationships between artifacts

• Document the transformation of a requirement into

design, development and testing artifacts

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Why is Traceability Important?

• Traceability helps us:

• Determine the overall quality of the application

under development

• Understand product under development and its

artifacts

• Manage and communicate change

• Learn from our mistakes

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Why is Traceability Important?

• Makes sure we deliver the product defined by the

requirements

• Requirements can get lost in day-to-day software

development and test

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Why is Traceability Important?

• Provides an audit trail for accountability

• Identify where information can be lost

• Satisfy regulatory requirements

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Traceability and Change

• Design and development efforts can take a year or

longer

• Unrealistic to expect that user needs don’t change

over time

• What happens to these changes?

• What happens to the schedule?

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Traceability and Change

• Changes have to propagate in several directions

• Functional descriptions

• Design specifications

• Test plans and test cases

• Code

• Acceptance criteria

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Traceability and Change

• Changes have to trace forward and backward

• From requirement to final acceptance test

• From final acceptance test back to requirements

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Traceability and Change

• Why trace backward?

• Helps ensure that the evolving product remains on

the right track with regards to evolving requirements

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Traceability and Change

• Requirements and related artifacts often reside in

isolated silos

• Design/UML software

• Requirements management software

• Test management software

• Source code control software

• Defect tracking software

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Traceability and Change

• Best solution

• Integrated tool solution – requirements, test

management, defect tracking, source code control

• Good solution

• A robust interfaces between different tools

• Poor solution

• Trying to trace manually

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Approaches to Traceability

• Traceability begins with requirements

• Product success based on fulfilling requirements

• Requirements must be documented

• Changes must be formally requested and documented

• Change requests and change orders

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Approaches to Traceability

• Ideally, change orders identify downstream artifacts

• Team members know what must be changed

• In reality, team doesn’t usually know what else needs to

be changed

• Artifact tree or matrix is needed

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Approaches to Traceability

• The traceability matrix

• Correlates requirements with development and

testing artifacts

• Provides a visual connection between requirements

and other artifacts

• Enables validation that project requirements are

being met

© 2011 Seapine Software, Inc. All rights reserved.

Approaches to Traceability

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Approaches to Traceability

• Traceability is not rocket science

• It doesn’t have to be complex and difficult to

maintain

• Automation can make traceability almost

automatic

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Steps to Change and Traceability

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Steps to Change and Traceability

• Link requirements to related artifacts

• Test cases

• Spec paragraphs

• Code modules

• Defects

• Also create backward links

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Steps to Change and Traceability

• Use change requests/change orders

• Change requirements first, then look at artifacts

• Use traceability to identify potential changes to artifacts

• Work with artifact owners to ensure requirement

changes are reflected in artifacts

• Changed requirement changed test case

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Steps to Change and Traceability

• Make sure changed requirements and artifacts are

appropriately labeled

• Team members using these artifacts need to know

they have changed, and what the changes are

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Steps to Change and Traceability

• Use a traceability matrix or tree for easy reference

• These can be generated using automation

© 2011 Seapine Software, Inc. All rights reserved.

Summary

• There is a need to relate business requirements to the

delivered product

• Traceability provides the ability to define and maintain

that relationship

• Traceability doesn’t have to be difficult or time-

consuming

• Automation with integrated tools do the best job

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Thank You

Seapine Software – www.seapine.com

The Seapine View - http://blogs.seapine.com/