Heavyweight quality control processes (such as the ones used by avionics or automotive) rely on manual construction and verification of traceability links. However, the strive towards agility implies that traceability links cannot be managed explicitly ---the agile system manifesto states explicitly to "value working software over comprehensive documentation". Consequently, information retrieval algorithms have been developed that can reconstruct traceability links based on the presence of naming conventions and programming idioms. Unfortunately, the current state of the art relies on batch processes that take several hours to complete and are poorly integrated in the IDE.

In this work package, we will therefore investigate techniques for on-the-fly reconstruction as well as active management of traceability links in order to allow for near instantaneous visualisation and navigation of the traceability matrix.

Activities and their deliverables

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Activity 4.1: On-the-fly reconstruction and exploration of traceability links.

• Deliverable 4.1.a Incremental heuristics for “on-the fly” construction of traceability links
• Deliverable 4.1.b Experience report on the feasibility of “on-the fly” construction of traceability links

Activity 4.2: Managing traceability links with active source code meta-data.

• Deliverable 4.2.a Definition of meta-data facilities and constraint engine used to express the traceability links
• Deliverable 4.2.b Experience report on the feasibility of active meta-data for traceability links