Towards Automated Traceability Assessment through Augmented Lifecycle Space.

The assessment and improvement of the satisfaction of traceability requirements during the development of software in general and of safety-critical software in particular is demanding and costly. The special requirements are reflected in software process related general and industry specific standards and the popular agile approaches as well. It is imminent, for practical and logical reasons, that there is a need for the automation of the assessment of the completeness and consistency of traceability as far as possible. In addition to highlighting experienced weaknesses of current either homogeneous or heterogeneous tool environments intending to support development lifecycle traceability, this paper outlines new solutions and suggests the exploitation of emerging technologies for the automation of traceability assessment and improvement.