Integrating Software Issue Tracking and Traceability Models

Abstract

Awareness of the importance of systems and software traceability and tool support for traceability have improved over the years. However, an effective traceability solution must align with an organization's engineering processes. Specifically, the phases of the traceability process model (traceability strategy, creation, use and maintenance of traceability) must be aligned with the organization's engineering processes. Previous research has discussed the benefits of integrating traceability into the configuration management process. This research proposes a process based on Model-Driven Engineering (MDE) where traceability is integrated into Change Request (CR) management. In this process, traceability is managed with the status of the CR; for example, traceability is used to report the progress of the implementation of a CR. The proof of concept of the integrated process is demonstrated with a tool, Traceability Centric Issue Tracking System (TraceITS), based on Eclipse Modelling Tools and Epsilon model management framework. A preliminary evaluation of TraceITS indicates several advantages over regular ITS.