A survey of traceability in requirements engineering and model-driven development

• Published in: Software and systems modeling Vol. 9; no. 4; pp. 529 - 565
• Main Authors: Winkler, Stefan, von Pilgrim, Jens
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Berlin/Heidelberg Springer-Verlag 01.09.2010; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Automated; Commonality; Compilers; Computer programs; Computer Science; Developers; Foundations; Information Systems Applications (incl.Internet); Interpreters; IT in Business; Programming Languages; Programming Techniques; Recording; Software; Software Engineering; Software Engineering/Programming and Operating Systems; Theme Section; Model-driven engineering; Traceability; Requirements engineering; Model-driven development
• ISSN: 1619-1366; 1619-1374
• DOI: 10.1007/s10270-009-0145-0

Traceability—the ability to follow the life of software artifacts—is a topic of great interest to software developers in general, and to requirements engineers and model-driven developers in particular. This article aims to bring those stakeholders together by providing an overview of the current state of traceability research and practice in both areas. As part of an extensive literature survey, we identify commonalities and differences in these areas and uncover several unresolved challenges which affect both domains. A good common foundation for further advances regarding these challenges appears to be a combination of the formal basis and the automated recording opportunities of MDD on the one hand, and the more holistic view of traceability in the requirements engineering domain on the other hand.