How to Create a Requirements Traceability Matrix

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By eHow Contributing Writer

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A successful project cannot be achieved without the project manager having an excellent organizational skill set. Information must be readily available upon demand. A good project manager will be able to identify what works and what is broken in an instant. Having a requirements traceability matrix is an invaluable tool to accomplish this.

Difficulty: Moderately Challenging

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

Project deliverables
Business requirements catalog
Use cases

Step 1

Create a template. There are many on the web from which to choose. The project manager, sponsor and decision makers will thank you when they are receiving information in a consistent and logical format.
Step 2

Transfer data from your Business Requirements Catalog. You will need, at bare minimum, the exact requirement identified from the Business Requirements Catalog that you need to have already created.
Step 3

Identify the requirement with a unique ID. The business requirements document should have already assigned an identifier that you will use in this matrix. If not, you will create one now and insert it next to the applicable requirement.
Step 4

Copy the Use Case ID into the traceability matrix. You may or may not have used use cases to develop your requirements. If you did, you will have an identifier on your use case. You must transfer the ID to this matrix in order to see out of what data or scenario this requirement was born.
Step 5

Insert the System Requirements Specification (SRS) ID into the traceability matrix. You might not be the actual author of the SRS, but there must be a line on the matrix to trace the business requirement to the corresponding system requirement needed.
Step 6

Insert the testing data into the traceability matrix. There are many different testing methods and procedures that can be used in any project. The traceability matrix must account for the types of tests used in this project. This should clearly indicate the specific test type, the date tested and the outcome of pass/fail.
Step 7

Review your data. Your matrix should now clearly show the specific deliverable requirements from conception clearly through testing. This will ensure that nothing gets moved into production haphazardly and when asked, the Project Manager now has this information at the ready.

Comments

n1ckster said

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on 1/20/2009 Au contraire, lmorgan94544: All members of the project team NEED NOT, NECESSARILY, first understand and buy into RT.
As analyst, it's your job to effectively use tools so that iterative results of the unfolding requirements analysis process are made available to and clearly understood by team members without RT training or indoctrination.
Tools are the life-blood by which you move the requirements identification process forward; if you wait for a bunch of documentation-resistant tekkies to "buy into" your approach, you place yourself on the path to defeat and failure.
Properly crafted and succinctly-presented requirements encourage team attention and use. Management likes 'em, too. And for you as analyst, they save your bacon.

Agreed: there are plenty of tools out there. The one you choose should be both 1) capable of handling the project's requirements and 2) ent

CharlieW2 said

on 12/13/2008 Hi Sunnyfei,
www.pixref.com will auto-generate a requirements traceability matrix based on requirement ID tags inserted into your documentation and commented in implementation or test files.

lmorgan94544 said

on 9/26/2008 There are many tools. However, the concept of requirements traceability must be understod and bought into by all members of the project team before any tool can help in the process.