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Subject:Bi-directional traceability and docs From:dan_roberts -at- adp -dot- com To:"TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com> Date:Tue, 15 Jun 2004 14:23:04 -0600
We're going thru the pains of CMMi here, and one of the objectives is to
institute "bi-directal traceability", which, in a nutshell, means that the
spec points to the places in the code and doc that need to change to meet
a user req, and the code and the doc reflect the user req that prompted a
change. And my group here has been asked to consider implementing this
traceability in our doc.
A little background. We release new software versions every 6 months, each
new version consisting of a number of user req "enhancements", which are
then summarized in Release Notes, and propogated throughout the
installation, configuration, and user doc. The Release Notes list each
"enhancement" that goes in a version, but the other docs do not mention
specific enhancements by number. The request is that the other pieces of
doc also begin mentioning the specific "enhancements".
I can come up with good reasons to do so - it helps our users and our
business analysts track how an enhancement ripples through our system.
OTOH, I can see this turning into a big pain in the tuckus.
So, I'm curious: Do any of you folk implement bidirectional traceability
in your docs? If so, how successful was it? Are there caveats to doing
this, things to watch for and guard against?
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