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The building of traceability matrices by those other than the original developers is an arduous, error prone, prolonged, and labor intensive task. Thus, after-the-fact requirements tracing is a process where the right kind of automation can definitely assist an analyst. Recently, a number of researchers have studied the application of various methods, often based on information retrieval after-the-fact tracing. The studies are diverse enough to warrant a means for comparing them easily as well as for determining areas that require further investigation. To that end, we present here an experimental framework for evaluating requirements tracing and traceability studies. Common methods, metrics and measures are described. Recent experimental requirements tracing journal and conference papers are catalogued using the framework. We compare these studies and identify areas for future research. Finally, we provide suggestions on how the field of tracing and traceability research may move to a more mature level.

Recently, there has been growing interest in formalizing UML, thereby enabling rigorous analysis of its many graphical diagrams. Two obstacles currently limit the adoption and use of UML formalizations in practice. First is the need to verify the consistency of artifacts under formalization. Second is the need to validate formalization approaches against domain-specific requirements. Techniques from the emerging field of requirements traceability hold promise for addressing these obstacles. This paper contributes a technique called retrieval by construction (RBC), which establishes traceability links between a UML model and a target model intended to denote its semantics under formalization. RBC provides an approach for structuring and representing the complex one-to-many links that are common between UML and target models under formalization. RBC also uses the notion of value identity in a novel way that enables the specification of the link-retrieval criteria using generative procedures. These procedures are a natural means for specifying UML formalizations. We have validated the RBC technique in a tool framework called UBanyan, written in C++. We applied the tool to three case studies, one of which was obtained from the industry. We have also assessed our results using the two well-known traceability metrics: precision and recall. Preliminary investigations suggest that RBC can be a useful traceability technique for validating and verifying UML formalizations.

An approach for the semi-automated recovery of traceability links between software documentation and source code is presented. The methodology is based on the application of information retrieval techniques to extract and analyze the semantic information from the source code and associated documentation. A semi-automatic process is defined based on the proposed methodology.

The paper advocates the use of latent semantic indexing (LSI) as the supporting information retrieval technique. Two case studies using existing software are presented comparing this approach with others. The case studies show positive results for the proposed approach, especially considering the flexibility of the methods used.

Traceability between software requirements and UML design helps requirement engineers and software developers understand the project goal and software architecture. However, the traceability mapping between the two elements is not well-defined and as a result there is no consistent way to make the traceability between two. A practical guideline is proposed for the traceability between software requirement and UML design. The guideline includes meta-model and process step. The process step defines detailed processes and most importantly, the Requirement-type and its mapping to UML diagrams. Requirements can be categorized based on their aspects and this categorization can be made as Requirement-type. This pre-defined Requirement-type is added to each requirement and this Requirement-type enforces to use certain types of UML diagrams as solutions. This mapping between each Requirement-type and UML diagram is the key of proposed guideline. With the help of the Requirement-type and mapping, traceability link can be made easily and checked automatically. The guideline was applied to the Missile Project and Helicopter Project of ADD (Agency of Defense Development) in South Korea.