What is bidirectional traceability?
In the Requirements Management (REQM) process area, specific practice 1.4 states, “Maintain bidirectional traceability among the requirements and work products.” 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). Typically, traceability identifies the origin of items (e.g., customer needs) and follows these same items as they travel through the hierarchy of the Work Breakdown Structure to the project teams and eventually to the customer. When the requirements are managed well, bidirectional traceability is achieved from the source requirements to lower-level requirements and selected work products and verifications and then back to their source. Such bidirectional traceability helps determine that all source requirements have been completely addressed and that all lower level requirements and selected work products can be traced to a valid source.
Bidirectional Traceability must be implemented from both forward & backward(i.e from requirements to end products and from end products to requirements) When the the requirements are fully managed then traceability should be established between source requirements to its lower level requirements and from lower level requirements to source. This helps us to determine all the source requirements have been completely addressed.
