Requirements traceability matrix

Requirement to deliverable and back again. The two directions fail differently and both are shown.

Demonstration project - no figure here describes a real facilityChanges are not saved

Why

A requirement counts as traced only when the deliverable answering it can actually be approved. An answer nobody has accepted is not an answer.

Writes are validated against the engineering rules and then refused, because no database has been configured for this environment.

Requirements

Traced to an approved deliverable

Answered by a draft

Answered by nothing

Requirement to deliverable
Requirement	What it requires	Source	Answered by
REQ-SUG-001	Consider recording ambient temperature at the start and end of the hold period, to explain a pressure change that is thermal rather than a leak.	ZRF-SPC-3300	nothing	Unanswered	Start one

Both directions, because they fail differently

Forward finds the requirement nothing answers, which surfaces at handover. Backward finds the deliverable that answers nothing, which usually means somebody wrote a document the contract never asked for.

Drafted is not traced

A requirement answered by a draft with an open blocking comment is not traced. The answer exists and nobody has accepted it, and a matrix that counted it as traced would report compliance that has not been established.

A source the project does not hold

A requirement citing a standard the project holds no copy of is shown with its source marked not held. The requirement is still real - somebody wrote it down - but nobody can check it against the clause it claims to come from.