Measuring requirements traceability from multiple angles at multiple lifecycle entry points

Ideally, requirements traceability metrics are started at the beginning of a project. The initial statement of work or request for proposal form the root of the requirements tree and the traditional requirements metrics (requirements added, modified, deleted) are baselined from those documents. The collecting of requirements metrics at various stages of the lifecycle $from architecture to testing to help desk support - based on work with a number of government and commercial clients is discussed. Similar to the costs of fixing defects, the challenges of starting requirements metrics collection substantially increase the later in the lifecycle one starts but the return on investment can still be significant at each stage.