Traceablity matrix

Traceability matrix

A traceability matrix is a document, usually in the form of a table, that correlates any two baselined documents that require a many to many relationship to determine the completeness of the relationship. It is often used with high-level requirements (these often consist of marketing requirements) and detailed requirements of the software product to the matching parts of high-level design, detailed design, test plan, and test cases.

For instance a requirements traceability matrix is used to check to see if the current project requirements are being met, and to help in the creation of a Request for Proposal, various deliverable documents, and project plan tasks.

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 one must be made. Large values imply that the relationship is too complex and should be simplified.

A traceability matrix is created by associating requirements with the work products that satisfy them. Tests are associated with the requirements on which they are based and the product tested

to meet the requirement.
Above is a simple traceability matrix structure. There can be more things included in a traceability matrix than shown. In traceability, the relationship of driver to satisfier can be one-to-one, one-to-many, many-to-one, or many-to-many.
Traceability requires unique identifiers for each requirement and product. Numbers for products are established in a configuration management (CM) plan.
Traceability ensures completeness, that all lower level requirements come from higher level requirements, and that all higher level requirements are allocated to lower level requirements. Traceability is also used to manage change and provides the basis for test planning.
Sample Traceability Matrix

A traceability matrix is a report from the requirements database or repository. The examples show tracing between user and system requirements. User requirement identifiers begin with "U" and system requirements with "S." Tracing S12 to its source makes it clear this requirement is erroneous: it must be eliminated, rewritten, or the traceability corrected.




Traceability is not a panacea. For requirements tracing and resulting reports to work, the requirements must be of good quality. Requirements of poor quality transfer work to subsequent phases of the SDLC, increasing cost and schedule and creating disputes with the customer.
In addition to traceability matrices, other reports are necessary to manage requirements. What goes into each report depends on the information needs of those receiving the report(s). Determine their information needs and document the information that will be associated with the requirements in your requirements management plan for when you set up your requirements database or repository