Bidirectional traceability

Bidirectional traceability is the ability to trace both forward and backward (i.e., from requirements to end products and from end product back to requirements).

It means tracing the code from requirements and vice-versa throughout a Software Development Life Cycle (SDLC). When you are in the course of your project, your fundamental aim would be to ensure that each and every requirement is translated into code. Tracing right from the requirements through the architecture and design, to the code, to ensure that the objectives or more precisely requirements have been met is referred to as the process of establishing Forward Traceability.

When you think about maintenance, invariably, due to economic and technical considerations your client will come back to you. At this juncture, you will debug; or rather you will hunt for various types of bugs. You should be in a position to go back to the requirements of corresponding code or architectural components. To achieve this you ought to trace back your code and design to their corresponding requirements. This process is called Backward Traceability.