Trace links explained: An automated approach for generating rationales

Software Traceability is a critical element in all safety critical software systems. Trace links are created across diverse artifacts such as requirements, design, code, test cases, and hazards - either manually or with the help of supporting tools. The links are then used to support a range of software engineering activities including impact analysis, compliance verification, and safety inspections. For traceability to effectively support these activities it is important for the meaning and rationale of each link to be clearly communicated. It is often insuficient to know that one artifact satisfies, realizes, or complies to another. Instead, it is important to know why and how it does so. Terms and phrases used to describe artifacts are connected through composition, synonymic, and generalization relationships which often can only be interpreted by domain experts. In this RE:Next! paper we propose a novel approach for utilizing domain-specific knowledge bases to generate trace link rationales. We illustrate our approach with examples of automatically generated rationales taken from the domain of Communication and Control of a Transportation system, and from a Medical Infusion pump domain.