SYSTEMS ENGINEERING

ABSTRACTS

LESSONS LEARNED (LL) / BEST PRACTICES (BP)

• Lessons Learned from Implementing Requirements Traceability - Abstract: Many standards that mandate requirements traceability as well as current literature do not provide a comprehensive model of what information should be captured and used as a part of a traceability scheme. Therefore, the practices and usefulness of traceability vary considerably across systems development efforts that range from very simplistic practices just aimed at satisfying the mandates to very comprehensive traceability schemes used as an important tool to manage the systems and software development process. In this article we present a case study of a systems development organization employing a comprehensive view of traceability. A model that describes the traceability practice in the organization, perceived benefits of such a scheme, and lessons learned from implementation are presented. Sacramento Air Logistics Center, located at McClellan Air Force Base, Calif., where the case study was performed, achieved a Level 3 rating under the Software Engineering Institute's (SEI) Capability Maturity Model (CMM) shortly after this study. The organization views requirements traceability as an important component of their efforts towards process improvement.