Analyzing item traceability

You can analyze traceability to view relationships and links between items and perform coverage analysis. For example, you may want to ensure that at least one test case has been generated for each approved requirement in a project. You can use the analysis results to compare requirements against test cases to see which requirements have test cases linked to them.

1. Choose Activities > Analyze Traceability.

The Analyze Traceability dialog box opens. The analysis results display items in rows and columns for comparison.

Each item is listed by its item type tag and number, and the number in parentheses indicates the number of links or relationships. Relationships and links between two items are indicated by icons in the cells. The arrows show the direction of the link or relationship between items. If there is more than one common link between row and column items, the total link count is also displayed in the cell.

Icon	Description
	Parent/child link—One item is the parent or child to the other item in a link. The arrow points to the parent item.
	Peer link—The items are peers.
	Parent/child relationship—One item is the parent or child to the other item in a relationship. The arrow points to the parent item. Only requirements, test cases, and test runs display relationships in the results.
	Peer relationship—The requirements share two relationships that point in opposite directions. This icon is unique to requirements that are used in multiple requirement documents but with different relationships in each document.
	Suspect item—One of the items is marked as suspect.

2. Select the Row/Column Settings.

• Select the item types to display in rows from the Rows Contain list. Optionally select a rows filter for items to pass to view specific items.
• Select the item types to display in columns from the Columns Contain list. The items with row dependencies filter, which only displays linked or related items, is automatically selected as the columns filter. Optionally select a columns filter for items to pass to view specific items.
• Click Create Filter to create a new filter for items in the rows or columns. See Adding filters.

3. Click a button in the toolbar to work with the results. See Traceability analysis toolbar.

4. To manage a link between two items, right-click the cell that contains one of the links and choose Manage Links. See Working with Related Items.

Tip:  Right-click a cell to work with an existing link, add a new link, investigate suspect dependencies, and clear suspect items.

Traceability analysis toolbar

Button	Use to:
	Show or hide links with parent items in columns and child items in rows.
	Show or hide links with child items in columns and parent items in rows.
	Show or hide peer links.
	Show or hide relationships with parent items in columns and child items in rows.
	Show or hide columns with child items in columns and parent items in rows.
	Show or hide empty rows.
	Show or hide rows that contain data.
	Show or hide empty columns.
	Show or hide columns that contain data.
	Preview the results before printing.
	Print the results.
	Export the results to a Microsoft Excel file. See Exporting a traceability analysis to Microsoft Excel.
	View help.