Skip to main content

A System Requirements Traceability Model: An Industrial Application

  • Conference paper
  • 106 Accesses

Abstract

Systems requirements traceability is an essential discipline in the development of large real-time safety critical systems. The correct capture and utilisation of traceability information is necessary to support verification and certification, and fundamental to change management.

The requirements for systems are at a number of levels of abstraction derived through successive decomposition of the system under development. Accordingly, the associated requirements traceability is equally complex. An additional dimension is the need to encapsulate the rationale for the requirements and its design (an essential element of the safety case) within the traceability structure, and the need to record a range of attributes to support the requirements such as requirement risk and stability.

A traceability model addressing all these dimensions of complexity has been developed. This identifies the requirement to requirement traceability, as well as requirements to design traceability. The structure is then used to organise and define the design rationale and requirement attributes. The traceability model also addresses the need to capture requirements in a range of formats including textual, pictorial and tabular with links to formal specifications where appropriate. An implementation of this model is currently being used to support the development work on a number of aero engine projects.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution.

Buying options

Chapter
USD   29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD   84.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD   109.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Learn about institutional subscriptions

Preview

Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.

Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.

References

  1. An Analysis of the Requirement Traceability Problem. Gotel O and Finkelstein A Proceedings of First International Conference on Requirements Engineering April 1994 p94–101

    Google Scholar 

  2. Implementing Requirements Traceability: A case study. Ramesh B, Powers T, Stubs C and Edwards M. Proceedings of the second IEEE International Symposium on Requirements Engineering March 1995 p89–95

    Google Scholar 

  3. [Tomlinson C et al. 1997] The PRICES Code of Practice. Tomlinson C, Cockram T, Griffyth J, Merrett P, Smith L, Summers R, West J, Whytock S, and Winsborrow L PRICES Project Report D29 LR8ER01E, April 1997 available from the Department of Trade and Industry SafelT Document Distribution Centre, 35 Benbrook Way, Macclesfield, Cheshire, UK, SKI 1 9RT

    Google Scholar 

  4. The ConCERT Approach to Requirements Specification Vickers A, Tongue P, Smith J. University of York Rolls-Royce UTC report YUTC/TR/96.1 (available from the authors)

    Google Scholar 

  5. [Vickers A et al. 1997] Complexity and its management in Requirements Engineering Vickers A, Tongue P, Smith J. Presented at INCOSE UK Annual Symposiu—Getting to Grips with Complexity, Coventry UK 1997

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 1998 Springer-Verlag London Limited

About this paper

Cite this paper

Cockram, T., Parker, R., Tiley, D., Smith, J. (1998). A System Requirements Traceability Model: An Industrial Application. In: Redmill, F., Anderson, T. (eds) Industrial Perspectives of Safety-critical Systems. Springer, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4471-1534-2_3

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4471-1534-2_3

  • Publisher Name: Springer, London

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-540-76189-1

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-4471-1534-2

  • eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive

Publish with us

Policies and ethics