Traceability is about understanding how high-level requirements (objectives, goals, aims, aspirations, expectations, needs) are transformed into low-level requirements, how they are implemented, and how they are verified.

Using traceability can provide the following benefits [HUL05]:

• Greater confidence in meeting objectives

Establishing traceability engenders greater reflection on how objectives are satisfied.  Traceability permits coverage analysis to ensure that everything you have done everything that you agreed to do and only what you agreed to do.

• Ability to assess the impact of change

Traceability permits various forms of impact analysis that can be used to assess the impact of a proposed change on the cost, schedule, and technical aspects of the project.

• Improved accountability

Traceability provides greater clarity about how work contributes to the whole.

• Ability to track progress

It is notoriously difficult to measure progress when all that you are doing is creating and revising artifacts. Traceability processes allow precise measures of progress, such as: Is there a design artifact for each requirement? Is there a test case for each requirement?.

• Ability to balance cost against benefit

Relating product components to the requirements allows you to compare benefits to costs.