Glossary · Evidence, assurance and traceability
Requirements traceability
German: Anforderungsrückverfolgbarkeit
In systems engineering, requirements traceability is the ability to follow the life of a requirement through documented links: back to its source (stakeholder need, regulation, hazard) and forward to derived requirements, design elements, implementation and verification results.
- Systems engineering
- Verification
In one sentence
Requirements traceability links each requirement to its source and to the design, implementation and tests that realize and verify it.
Example
The traceability matrix links the hazard 'crushing at the lift table' to the safety requirement, the light curtain design, the PLC code module and the validation test.
How it applies
- Engineering: Traceability shows completeness (every requirement is verified) and justification (every design element has a reason).
- Functional safety: Safety standards expect traceability from hazards to safety requirements to verification; missing links are a common audit finding.
- Documentation: Residual risks and warnings in the manual should be traceable to the risk assessment; the documentation team can maintain those links as part of the Evidence chain.
- Tooling: Traceability is maintained most reliably in a requirements or ALM tool, or in the System model; spreadsheets work for small projects but break easily when requirements are renumbered.
Requirements traceability vs. traceability
Traceability is the general concept (also for parts, measurements or data). Requirements traceability is its application to requirements; Bidirectional traceability is the form that works both forward and backward.