Requirements traceability is the process of linking requirements to other related artifacts, such as design elements, test cases, or issues, throughout the project life cycle. Requirements traceability helps to ensure that the requirements are aligned with the project objectives, validated by the stakeholders, and verified by the testers. Requirements traceability also supports change management, impact analysis, and quality assurance.
There are different tools and techniques that can be used to implement requirements traceability, depending on the size, complexity, and nature of the project. One of the simplest and most common tools is a spreadsheet, which can be used to create a requirements traceability matrix (RTM). An RTM is a table that lists the requirements in one axis and the related artifacts in another axis, and shows the relationships between them using symbols, colors, or codes. An RTM can be used when there is a relatively low amount of requirements that need to be traced, and when the project team is familiar with the spreadsheet software.
A spreadsheet-based RTM has some advantages, such as being easy to create, update, and share, and being flexible and customizable. However, it also has some limitations, such as being prone to errors, inconsistencies, and duplication, and being difficult to maintain, scale, and integrate with other tools. Therefore, for larger or more complex projects, it may be more suitable to use a dedicated requirements management tool that supports traceability features, such as SpiraTeam1, codeBeamer2, or Modern Requirements3
