Requirement Traceability
Requirement Traceability
In modern times, since the rapid development of technology, more and more software products are used in complex, potentially dangerous goods such as weapons control systems, aircraft and medical devices. These products are critical because failure of these kinds of systems could result in loss of life, significant environmental damage, and major financial crisis. Thus, all of these industries are heavily regulated by government or laws. They are forced to completely trace all aspects of the production process from raw materials through to production and delivery to the users. The ability to track these relationships and analyze the impact when change happens is a key feature and common to software processes.
To meet the procedures of both regulatory bodies and clients, manufacturers have in the past been forced to use mainly paper-based records that have several problems are not able to avoid. Such as time-consuming, record deletion, or do not address requirements and the impact of change, and that small changes to a system can create significant safety and reliability problems. Therefore, consistent and traceable software requirements are critical elements in modern complex products.
Gotel said that “Requirements traceability is the ability to describe and follow the life of a requirement, in both a forward and backward direction; i.e., from its origins, through its development and specification, to its subsequent deployment and use, and through periods of ongoing refinement and iteration in any of these phases” (94-101)5.
According to the definition of requirement traceability, there are two aspects of requirement traceability. Pre-requirement traceability is concerned with those aspects of a requirement’s life from the point before it is included in the software requirements specification. Post-requirement traceability is intended to assure that all requirements are fulfilled. In order to achieve the goals, we need to invent a
In modern times, since the rapid development of technology, more and more software products are used in complex, potentially dangerous goods such as weapons control systems, aircraft and medical devices. These products are critical because failure of these kinds of systems could result in loss of life, significant environmental damage, and major financial crisis. Thus, all of these industries are heavily regulated by government or laws. They are forced to completely trace all aspects of the production process from raw materials through to production and delivery to the users. The ability to track these relationships and analyze the impact when change happens is a key feature and common to software processes.
To meet the procedures of both regulatory bodies and clients, manufacturers have in the past been forced to use mainly paper-based records that have several problems are not able to avoid. Such as time-consuming, record deletion, or do not address requirements and the impact of change, and that small changes to a system can create significant safety and reliability problems. Therefore, consistent and traceable software requirements are critical elements in modern complex products.
Gotel said that “Requirements traceability is the ability to describe and follow the life of a requirement, in both a forward and backward direction; i.e., from its origins, through its development and specification, to its subsequent deployment and use, and through periods of ongoing refinement and iteration in any of these phases” (94-101)5.
According to the definition of requirement traceability, there are two aspects of requirement traceability. Pre-requirement traceability is concerned with those aspects of a requirement’s life from the point before it is included in the software requirements specification. Post-requirement traceability is intended to assure that all requirements are fulfilled. In order to achieve the goals, we need to invent a
References: 1. Cleland-Huang, J., Chang, C. & Ge, Y., “Supporting Event Based Traceability through High-Level Recognition of Change Events”, Proceedings of the 26th Annual International Computer Software and Applications Conference on Prolonging Software Life: Development and Redevelopment, 2002, pp. 595-602. 2. Jag, Sodhi, and Prince Sodhi. Managing IT Systems Requirements. Vienna, Va: Management Concepts, 2003. 3. Kotonya, Gerald, and Ian Sommerville. Requirements Engineering: Processes and Techniques. Chichester: J. Wiley, 1998. 4. K.Wiegers. Software Requirements. Second edition, 2003. 5. O. Gotel and A. Finkelstein, An analysis of the requirements traceability problem, in International Conference on Requirements Engineering, 1994, pp. 94-101.