Requirements traceability means documenting the life of a requirement while providing bi-directional traceability between various associated elements, like test cases and defects. By using this approach, and a requirements traceability tool, you can track every requirement change that was made from start to finish and through maintenance. Requirements traceability, test case management and bug tracking all go hand-in-hand and ensure that each requirement is properly implemented.

Requirements Traceability Tool

Software Planner is not only an ALM tool; it's also a requirements traceability tool that ensures your requirements are tested and tracked thoroughly, allowing for forward and backward traceability (bi-directional traceability).

Forward Traceability in Software Planner

Forward traceability follows the requirement and ensures that the proper direction is being followed. Each requirement goes through various phases: design, implementation, test and maintenance. Software Planner allows you to track the forward traceability from design through maintenance:

• Tracing the source of the requirements to their product requirements and ensure the product requirement specifications.
• Tracing each product requirement to the feature that fulfills that requirement, the source code that's used for that feature, the test cases that validate the requirements and each bug that is associated with the requirements. The main purpose is to ensure that each requirement is implemented in the product and that each requirement is thoroughly tested and if any bugs exist, they are tracked and fixed.

Backward Traceability in Software Planner

As you can probably imagine, backward traceability ensures the proper work items needed to fulfill the requirement have been completed. Software Planner allows you to track the backward traceability through various work items by:

• Tracing each unique work item, source code, test cases and defects, back to its associated requirement. Backward traceability verifies that each department involved has kept up with the requirements through tracing the design, code, and test cases.

Benefits of Requirements Traceability

Requirements traceability provides many advantages, including:

• Indentifying missing requirements
• Uncovering undefined requirements
• Performing impact analysis
• Performing coverage reporting
• Acting as a general baseline for creation and comparison

As a requirements traceability tool, Software Planner can help:

• Increase the accuracy of your requirements
• Act as a communication bridge between your business and technical departments
• Simplify the requirements management and traceability

Requirements Traceability in Software Planner

Requirements Traceability in Software Planner allows you to easily link one area of the software to another for bi-directional traceability. For example, you can link requirements with test cases and defects and then trace the flow forward, from the requirement, and backward, from the defects and test cases. You can also create links to other requirements when they are similar or related in some way.

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From the Requirements Traceability in Software Planner, you can see the forward traceability and how many test cases, defects and other requirements are linked to a specific requirement. You can also trace additional test cases, defects and requirements by linking them.

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Additionally, you can view the backward traceability from the Test Cases Traceability and the Defects Traceability in Software Planner.

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Requirements Traceability - Reporting

Reporting on your Requirements Traceability allows you to see the traceability and share information with others. With Software Planner's Traceability Reports you can view visual pie charts of your linked test cases, defects and requirements and also email owners of the specific defects and test cases to follow up on deadlines. You can also email the whole report and communicate with others on the progress of each requirement.

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Conclusion

As you can see, Requirements Traceability is very important to ensuring that each requirement is correctly implemented, tested and tracked. By associating requirements, test cases and defects, with a requirements traceability tool, like Software Planner, you can gain a competitive edge and ensure that your business and technical departments effectively communicate the requirements and deadlines. If you are interested in more information, watch this short video on Requirements Traceability

Download Software Planner

If you wish to learn more about Software Planner or receive a personalized demo of the product, contact AutomatedQA at +1 303-768-7480. If you haven't tried Software Planner, be sure to download and try it today. You can also learn more at SoftwarePlanner.com. You can also learn more about the requirements traceability by checking out our Services.