/
Traceability Matrix

CLOUD | DATA CENTER AND SERVER

Traceability Matrix

Overview

The Traceability Matrix View displays a two-dimensional matrix showing the links between two sets of requirements or other types of items. For example, you could have high-level customer requirements displayed as rows and their related lower-level specifications as columns. Links can be created and deleted on the fly. The Traceability Matrix View helps users visualize complex relationships within a set of requirements and to quickly create links and repair incorrect links.

To navigate to the Traceability Matrix View, open a project and select  Traceability > Traceability in the easeRequirements navigation bar.

It is important to understand that the effective use of the Traceability Matrix View depends on the practices of your organization and its development process. You need to take into account how different types of requirements or other types of issues are structured, as well as how they are linked together and used. An organization might have different practices for different situations, so different matrices can be defined and saved in the Traceability Matrix View.

The sheer number of requirements in a project may also be a challenge to understanding traceability, so identifying significant subsets of the requirements and saving them in different views also promotes an effective solution.

User Interface

Traceability Matrix View

The view displays a two-dimensional matrix to show the links between requirements. Arrows appear in the intersections of the rows and columns where the corresponding requirements are linked. For example, if Requirements form the rows of the matrix and Specifications form the columns, then the arrows show which Specifications are linked to which Requirements. Above the matrix are buttons for managing the view.

A link shown as R -> C, where R is a row issue and C is a column issue, indicates that R has what Jira calls an “outward” link description to B. A link shown as R <- C indicates that R has what Jira calls an “inward” link description to B. Hovering over an arrow reveals the link description.

DATACENTER A red triangle to the right of the arrow indicates a suspect link.

A successful linking practice strongly depends on having a careful and consistent link type configuration, with intuitively meaningful link descriptions. See How to Configure Jira Links to support Traceability.

Data Center Active View

A panel to the left of the Traceability Matrix View displays the active traceability matrix and provides operations to save or copy it.

Saved Views

A panel to the left of the Traceability Matrix View provides a list of saved views and context menu operations to manage them. The views are organized into two folders according to their status:

  • Personal Views: These views are only available to the user that created them. By default, a newly created view is personal.

  • Public Views: These views are available to everyone who has access to the Jira project.

Traceability Matrix View Operations

Purpose

Operation

Purpose

Operation

Create new matrix view

  • Cloud Select New View. Data CenterSelect Clear and then Configure View.

  • In the Configure View dialog, set the following options:

    • Row Definition:

      • Data Center Display Size: Specify the number of rows for the matrix. This is the basis for the traceability matrix pagination.

      • Source:

        • Issues Types: Select one or more issue types or <any>.

        • Filter: Specify the name of a saved filter.

        • JQL: Specify a JQL expression.

        • cloud Tree: Select a folder in the project tree.

    • Column Definition: Same options as for row definition.

    • Link Definition:

      • Link Types: Select the link descriptions or <any>.

      • Scope: Enable this option to indicate that unlinked requirements are to be included in the matrix. Otherwise, only requirements with at least one link between the corresponding rows and columns are included.

To determine the link descriptions, you should view the row issues as the subject of the relationship and the column issues as the object. For example, let’s suppose 1) the rows in a matrix are Requirements (R) and the columns are Specifications (S) and 2) the link type is Specification with the outward description “specifies” and the inward description “is specified by”. Then you would select the inward link description “is specified by”, because “R is specified by S”.

  • Select Show.

  • Cloud Select Save. Data Center Select Save from the active view panel.

New views must be explicitly saved.

Modify matrix view

  • Select Configure View.

  • Modify view options.

  • Select Show.

  • Cloud Select Save. Data Center Select Save from the active view panel.

Modified views must be explicitly saved.

Data Center Display issue in R4J tree view

  • Select an issue key:

    • If the issue is contained in only one project tree, that project tree is displayed in a new tab, with the selected issue displayed in the detail view.

    • If the issue is contained in multiple project trees, in the dialog select the project tree to be

      displayed.

    • If the issue is not contained in any project tree, in the dialog confirm that you want to be redirected to the Jira issue view.

Cloud Display issue in Jira view

  • Hover over an issue key:

    • Select the issue key to display the Jira view of the issue in a popup.

    • Select the arrow icon to the right of the issue key to display the Jira view of the issue in a separate tab.

Link two issues in matrix

  • Hover on an empty cell where the desired row and column issues intersect and select the + icon that appears.

  • Select the link type in the dialog.

  • Select Link.

Data Center The dialog is a general linking dialog and in principle allows you to link to any issue. You may ignore the additional options to link to the designated issue in the matrix.

Data Center Link multiple issues in matrix

  • Select Apply Multi-Link.

  • Select one or more issues from the rows in the matrix page.

  • Select a link type.

  • Select one or more issues from the columns in the matrix page.

  • Select Add.

  • Define more link relations using same steps as above.

  • Select Link.

Display link type

  • Hover on the arrow in a cell where the desired row and column issues intersect.

Delete link

  • Hover on the arrow in a cell where the desired row and column issues intersect and select it.

  • Cloud Select Remove. Data Center Select Unlink.

Refresh matrix

  • Select Refresh.

Data Center Reset configuration

  • Select Clear.

Cloud Export matrix

  • Select Export from the saved view context menu.

Data Center Export matrix

  • Select Export dropdown.

  • Select an option:

    • XML: Export to a file in the XML format.

    • Excel: Export either all pages or the current page to an Excel file.

    • Template: Select an Excel template for the export to use to export all pages.

Data Center Page through matrix

  • Use the arrows to page backwards or forward or enter a page number to go directly to a page.

Delete matrix view

  • Select Delete from the context menu of the saved view.

Copy matrix view

Cloud

  • Select Save as.

  • Enter the name of the new view.

  • Select checkmark.

The view is saved as a private view by default.

Data Center

  • Select … from the active view panel.

  • Select Save view as.

  • Enter the name of the new view.

  • Select Private or Public.

  • Select Save.

Cloud Change status of matrix view

  • Drag view from private status to public or vice-versa in the saved view panel.

Cloud Reorder saved matrix views

  • Drag view to the desired position in the saved view panel.

Copy URL of matrix view

Cloud

  • Select Copy link address from the context menu of the saved view.

Data Center

  • Select Get URL from the context menu of the saved view.

Known issues