In
software development
Software development is the process of conceiving, specifying, designing, programming, documenting, testing, and bug fixing involved in creating and maintaining applications, frameworks, or other software components. Software development invol ...
, a traceability matrix (TM)
is a document, usually in the form of a table, used to assist in determining the completeness of a relationship by correlating any two
baselined documents using a many-to-many relationship comparison.
It is often used with high-level
requirement
In product development and process optimization, a requirement is a singular documented physical or functional need that a particular design, product or process aims to satisfy. It is commonly used in a formal sense in engineering design, includ ...
s (these often consist of marketing requirements) and detailed requirements of the product to the matching parts of
high-level design
High-level design (HLD) explains the architecture that would be used to develop a system. The architecture diagram provides an overview of an entire system, identifying the main components that would be developed for the product and their interf ...
, detailed design,
test plan A test plan is a document detailing the objectives, resources, and processes for a specific test for a software or hardware product. The plan typically contains a detailed understanding of the eventual workflow.
Test plans
A test plan documents the ...
, and
test case
In software engineering, a test case is a specification of the inputs, execution conditions, testing procedure, and expected results that define a single test to be executed to achieve a particular software testing objective, such as to exercise ...
s.
A requirements traceability matrix may be used to check if the current project requirements are being met, and to help in the creation of a
request for proposal,
software requirements specification,
various deliverable documents, and project plan tasks.
[Carlos, Tom (October 21, 2008). Requirements Traceability Matrix - RTM. PM Hut, October 21, 2008. Retrieved October 17, 2009 from http://www.pmhut.com/requirements-traceability-matrix-rtm.]
Common usage is to take the identifier for each of the items of one document and place them in the left column. The identifiers for the other document are placed across the top row. When an item in the left column is related to an item across the top, a mark is placed in the intersecting cell. The number of relationships are added up for each row and each column. This value indicates the mapping of the two items. Zero values indicate that no relationship exists. It must be determined if a relationship must be made. Large values imply that the relationship is too complex and should be simplified.
To ease the creation of traceability matrices, it is advisable to add the relationships to the source documents for both backward and forward traceability.
That way, when an item is changed in one baselined document, it is easy to see what needs to be changed in the other.
Sample traceability matrix
See also
*
Requirements traceability Requirements traceability is a sub-discipline of requirements management within software development and systems engineering. Traceability as a general term is defined by the IEEE Systems and Software Engineering Vocabulary as (1) the degree to wh ...
*
Software engineering
Software engineering is a systematic engineering approach to software development.
A software engineer is a person who applies the principles of software engineering to design, develop, maintain, test, and evaluate computer software. The term '' ...
*
List of requirements engineering tools
Requirements engineering tools are usually software products to ease the RE processes and allow for more systematic and formalized handling of requirements, change management and traceability.
The PMI guide ''Requirements Management: A Practical ...
References
External links
Bidirectional Requirements Traceabilityby Linda Westfall
Why Software Requirements Traceability Remains a Challengeby Andrew Kannenberg and Dr. Hossein Saiedian
{{Software engineering
Software testing
Software requirements