Maintain bidirectional traceability among the requirements and work products.

The intent of this specific practice is to maintain the bidirectional traceability of requirements for each level of product decomposition. (See the definition of “bidirectional traceability” in the glossary.) When the requirements are managed well, traceability can be established from the source requirement to its lower level requirements and from the lower level requirements back to their source. Such bidirectional traceability helps determine that all source requirements have been completely addressed and that all lower level requirements can be traced to a valid source.

Requirements traceability can also cover the relationships to other entities such as intermediate and final work products, changes in design documentation, and test plans. The traceability can cover horizontal relationships, such as across interfaces, as well as vertical relationships. Traceability is particularly needed in conducting the impact assessment of requirements changes on the project's activities and work products.

Typical Work Products

1.    Requirements traceability matrix

2.    Requirements tracking system

Subpractices

1.    Maintain requirements traceability to ensure that the source of lower level (derived) requirements is documented.

2.    Maintain requirements traceability from a requirement to its derived requirements and allocation to functions, interfaces, objects, people, processes, and work products.

3.    Generate the requirements traceability matrix.