What is a Traceability Matrix?
A Traceability Matrix (TM) is a document that co-relates any two baseline documents that require a many-to-many relationship to check the completeness of the relationship. In QA, it is most commonly used to map Requirements to Test Cases.
Why it Matters
Without traceability, you cannot answer the simple question: "Are we ready to release?". Traceability ensures that every requirement has at least one test, and every test maps back to a requirement.
Types of Traceability
There are three main types of traceability:
- Forward Traceability: Mapping requirements to test cases.
- Backward Traceability: Mapping test cases to requirements.
- Bi-directional Traceability: Mapping both ways. This is the gold standard.
Building a Matrix in Xray
In modern tools like Xray, the matrix is generated automatically if you link your issues correctly. We will see how to do this in the next lesson.