Practical Implications of Traceability

Traceability defined as the ability to trace dependent items within a model and the ability to trace correspondent items in other models is advocated as a desirable property of a software development process. Potential benefits of good traceability are clearer documentation, more focussed development, increased ease of system understanding, and more precise impact analysis of proposed changes. An industry‐scale project applying the analysis and design method Objectory has been examined and documented with a number of traceability examples generated from the perspective of a maintainer attempting to understand the system. Four representative examples and a categorization of traceability are presented in this study in order to provide a concrete empirical basis for the application of traceability to systems development.