Traceability is a fundamental part of any software development process and, in many cases, critical in satisfying any compliance or regulatory constraint. Most often, traceability is accomplished through a top-down approach – using best practices and tools that link code to features and requirements as soon as they are made. However, for most quality, audit, and test validation procedures, this form of traceability falls short as it does not analyze what was actually produced to confirm that the expected requirements, fixes, or requests are delivered as planned, at least not before costly testing phases. As a result, there is still much
risk and uncertainty at all levels of testing (unit, integration, functional), including doing unnecessary and costly regression testing.

Roundtrip traceability is accomplished by taking both a top-down and bottom-up approach to verify and validate your delivery. The bottom-up approach is accomplished by using advanced build analysis and reporting that allows team leaders and testers to confirm that planned features and bug fixes were actually implemented within the build or test phase. Using advance build management functionalities for bottom-up traceability increases confidence within the team that
they have a stable, consistent, and approved configuration.

Roundtrip traceability increases the predictability and quality of software development for both rigorous development processes that need total control over content and traceability, and for agile teams who must deliver stable, documented releases frequently and efficiently.

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