Guideline: Traceability
This guideline explains how to create traceability links between artifacts in the context of Application Lifecycle Management (ALM) tools.
Relationships
Related Elements
Main Description

The whole team is responsible for managing traceability. Team members "link while they think", an approach used to establish traceability links when team members create or update artifacts. In doing so, they don't have to be reminded to perform a separate task after the fact, thus guaranteeing it gets done and the traceability links are accurate.

While using the ALM tools, team members can automate the creation of traceability links as much as possible. Most artifacts can be created in context of another artifact, which should automatically create the correct traceability links between artifacts.

Please refer to Figure 1 for an illustration of types of links that can be created between the various artifacts in the context of ALM tools.

Figure 1 - Possible traceability links created between artifacts in the context of ALM tools

The traceability links are explained as follows:

  • In Requirements projects:
    • Requirements are implemented by iteration plans and validated by test plans
    • Requirements are defined by analysts and other team members; their implementation progress is tracked in work items, and their correctness is validated by test cases
  • In Development projects:
    • Project managers and development managers use iteration plans to implement requirements in the context of a development schedule
    • Team leads plan the iterations using iteration plans, where the work is broken down further into tasks
    • Developers work on defects that are submitted by testers as a result of test execution.
  • In Test projects:
    • The test team links requirements to test plans and test cases
    • Testers link test cases to work items to ensure coverage of the implementation
    • Testers run test cases and submit defects for test failures

For more information on this topic, the "Link It forward" article on Jazz.net is a good reference: http://jazz.net/blog/index.php/2010/10/21/link-it-forward/.

Also, the following video on Jazz.net illustrates how to explore the linking capabilities in the ALM tools: http://jazz.net/library/video/466.