Requirements traceability is intended to ensure continued alignment between stakeholder requirements and system evolution. To be useful, traces must be organized according to some modeling framework. Indeed, several such frameworks have been proposed, mostly based on theoretical considerations or analysis of other literature. This paper, in contrast, follows an empirical approach. Focus groups and interviews conducted in 26 major software development organizations demonstrate a wide range of traceability practices with distinct low-end and high-end users of traceability. From these observations, reference models comprising the most important kinds of traceability links for various development tasks have been synthesized. The resulting models have been validated in case studies and are incorporated in a number of commercial traceability tools. The discussion of the link types and their usage in practice has implications for the design of next-generation traceability methods and tools.

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In the development of large-scale, real-time, complex computer intensive systems, ii is essential to maintain traceability of requirements io various outputs t o ensure that the system meets the current set of requirements. Based on an empirical study in a simulated systems development environment, this research highlights several major issues that need to be considered in the development of a model of requirements traceability.

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The explicit aim of the application of technical regulation is to ensure that the requisite Technical Integrity of the developed system is achieved. Technical Integrity encompasses fitness for service, system safety and minimised environmental impact. The beginnings of a program of research to test the hypothesis that “The application of technical regulation yields improved technical integrity of the complex engineered system” are established. It is shown that only the intended emergent properties of a complex engineered system and its unintended hazards are directly addressed by technical regulation. A candidate set of measures to assess technical integrity is proposed. The methods that may enhance technical integrity of complex systems are reviewed. The degrees to which technical regulatory frameworks actually enforce methods known to have a contribution to technical integrity are also reviewed resulting in a list of corollary questions to be considered by future research.