Tracing Whodunit

"It was Olly by the water cooler on a post-it!" Being able to trace back to the source of a requirement is often crucial to gain clarification on the requirement and to support any subsequent change. The medium used to capture the requirement at its point of origin and its initial representational form can also convey information that is pertinent to understanding the trace record. However, preparing for the potential to retrieve such seemingly simple information on a project can be sidelined in the rush to engineer an end product, meaning that the ability to undertake pre-requirements traceability is lost. This paper suggests that a familiar whodunit game could be used to raise awareness of this important topic amongst students and practitioners, and be used for team building on projects. It is intended to seed a wider discussion on whether there is a place for a requirements engineering compendium of games.