Traceability Management

Purpose

Maintain bidirectional traceability between requirements and all downstream artifacts (designs, tests, code) to ensure complete coverage and enable impact analysis.

When to Use

• When creating any artifact
• Validation and verification
• Impact analysis
• Audit and compliance
• Coverage gap analysis

Prerequisites

• Requirements documented with IDs
• Artifact naming conventions defined
• Traceability matrix template ready

Process

Step 1: Establish ID Scheme

ID formats:
- Requirements: REQ-XXX
- User Stories: US-XXX
- Design: DES-XXX
- Test Cases: TC-XXX
- Code: file path
- ADRs: ADR-XXX

Step 2: Create Forward Traceability

From requirement forward:
REQ-001 → 
  ├── DES-001 (Design)
  ├── US-001, US-002 (Stories)
  ├── TC-001, TC-002 (Tests)
  ├── src/auth/*.ts (Code)
  └── ADR-001 (Decision)

Step 3: Create Backward Traceability

From artifact back to requirement:
src/auth/login.ts →
  └── Tests: TC-001, TC-005
      └── Stories: US-001
          └── Requirement: REQ-001

Step 4: Maintain Traceability Matrix

Matrix format:
| REQ ID | Design | Stories | Tests | Code | Status |
|--------|--------|---------|-------|------|--------|
| REQ-001 | DES-001 | US-001,2 | TC-001-5 | auth/* | Complete |
| REQ-002 | DES-002 | US-003 | TC-010 | user/* | In Progress |

Step 5: Verify Coverage

Coverage checks:
- Every REQ has at least one US
- Every US has at least one TC
- Every TC traces to code
- No orphan artifacts

Inputs

Input	Type	Required	Description
requirements	Markdown	Yes	All requirements
artifacts	Various	Yes	Designs, tests, code

Outputs

Output	Type	Description
traceability_matrix.csv	CSV	Complete matrix
coverage_report.md	Markdown	Coverage analysis
orphan_report.md	Markdown	Unlinked artifacts

StudyAbroad-Specific Considerations

• GDPR requirements must trace to specific code/tests
• External API requirements trace to integration code
• Security requirements trace to security tests
• Accessibility requirements trace to UI tests

Integration Points

• Test Manager: Test traceability (TEST-005)
• All Agents: Artifact linking
• Orchestrator: Coverage validation

Examples

Traceability Matrix (Excerpt)

REQ_ID,Design,User_Stories,Test_Cases,Code_Paths,Status
REQ-001,DES-001,"US-001,US-002","TC-001,TC-002,TC-003",src/backend/auth/,Complete
REQ-002,DES-002,US-003,"TC-010,TC-011",src/backend/user/profile.ts,Complete
REQ-003,"DES-003,DES-004","US-004,US-005","TC-020,TC-021,TC-022",src/backend/search/,In Progress
REQ-010,DES-010,"US-020,US-021","TC-100,TC-101",src/backend/gdpr/,Complete

Coverage Report:
- Requirements coverage: 100% (25/25 have designs)
- Test coverage: 92% (23/25 have tests)
- Code coverage: 88% (22/25 implemented)

Gaps Identified:
- REQ-023: No test cases defined
- REQ-024: No code implemented yet

Validation

• Matrix complete for all requirements
• No orphan artifacts
• Bidirectional links verified
• Coverage meets thresholds
• Regular updates maintained