An important application of traceability is to let you assess how complete your project is - and not just with a binary “yes I am finished” or “no, still work to do”. We can use the presence or absence of approved traceability links to to measure progress at a much finer level of granularity, and in terms of both qualification (is this bit tested yet?) and satisfaction (has something lower down been built which satisfies this need?). Consider the link between SR:16 and the slide which depicts a “bored audience”, highlighted below (the idea being that the “bored audience” slide may contribute some humor to the presentation):

Traceability Link

If for some reason the contractor who is doing the slides for the person who is responsible for the SR had not yet proposed this satisfaction link (i.e., let’s delete it), the SR owner may be interested in running a report which shows all requirements which are not linked by approved satisfaction links:

tr2.png

If your SR is full of red boxed requirements, then you know you are far from finished (notice that SR:1 also has no incoming satisfaction links, so it too is highlighted with a red box).

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