traceability-matrix

Traceability Matrix

Overview

Every SE artifact references other artifacts. Requirements reference their sources. Architecture elements reference their requirements. Specifications reference their architecture. Test cases reference their requirements. These references form a chain. When the chain is intact, you can answer "if we change X, what breaks?" by following the links. When the chain is broken, you discover the breakage during integration testing — or worse, in the field.

This skill extracts all references from all SE artifacts, builds the complete traceability graph, identifies every broken link and uncovered node, and produces a report that tells you exactly what is missing. It runs across artifacts rather than producing one — it is the quality assurance step of the SE workflow, the "lint" that verifies every requirement has a design, every design element is tested, and every test validates something required.

When to Use

• After completing any SE artifact — to verify that it properly links to upstream and downstream artifacts
• Before a milestone review (requirements freeze, design freeze, test readiness) — to produce the formal traceability evidence
• When scope changes — to assess which design elements and test cases are affected by a requirement change
• After a design-review resolution — to verify that fixes have not broken traceability links
• Auditing or certification requires formal traceability documentation
• Integrating artifacts from multiple authors — to verify cross-author consistency

When NOT to use:

• No SE artifacts exist yet (run the upstream skills first)
• The change to an artifact is purely editorial (typo fix, reformatting — reference IDs unchanged)
• There is only one artifact (traceability requires at least two artifacts to trace between)
• The user explicitly asks for a quick coverage check (do it manually, don't invoke the full skill)

The Process

EXTRACT ──→ LINK ──→ COVERAGE ──→ GAP-ANALYSIS ──→ REPORT
    │          │          │             │              │
    ▼          ▼          ▼             ▼              ▼
  Parse all  Build     Calculate      Identify       Produce
  artifact   trace     coverage       orphans,       traceability
  references chains    metrics        gaps, &        report
                                      over-coverage