Sometimes the Relations seen in Traceability Tab, are different from the Relations seen in the Traceability Matrix Report.
This can happen for the following reasons:
LINK DIRECTION
In order to generate a correct Traceability Matrix – the direction shall be set as upstream. Means:
- Test Case (source) points to Software requirements (target)
- Software requirements (source) points to Product Requirement (target)
- Requirement (source) points to Risk(target)
And so on.
For example:
If you generate Traceability Matrix for Product requirements, In Level 1 you will see Software requirements points to Product requirements, and test cases that are pointing to the software requirements in level 2
LOCATION OF RELATED ITEMS
As relations can be set for items in different projects – the traceability tab shows the relations RELEVANT TO THE VIEW USER LOGIN TO.
Means, if work item in a specific view has relations to work items in projects which are not related to the current view – the relations will be greyed out in the traceability tab and will not be shown in the traceability matrix
Example:
- Solution S1 has Project P1 and Project P2
- Item A in P1 points to item B in P2
If user login to project P1, he will see the B in the traceability tab but greyed out
RELATIONS RELATED TO BRANCHED ITEMS
In some cases relations are created, then the item is branched, and the relation is removed from current view.
So, in that case, you will see this relation greyed out
Example:
- Item A in project P1 created in 1.0
- Link has been added with the Item B created in 1.0
- Now in 2.0 Item A is branched
In Item A 2.0, Relation of Item A with Item B remains unchanged
In Item B 2.0, Relation of Item A will be greyed out in traceability tab and new row will be added that shows the Relation of Branched Item A with the Item B