Checking traceability across models
Overview
Trace View is the screen for checking traceability between models.
In the tree-style trace view, you can arrange models with a hierarchical structure and check the traceability and scope of influence across multiple models.
The following describes how to check traceability across models in the following order:
- Switch screens
- Arrange the target models
- Narrow down the traceability check targets
- Check traceability across models
- Narrow down the target models to be displayed
- Check the trace coverage for each target model
Switch screens
To display the trace view, follow the steps below.
- From the ribbon, perform one of the following operations.
- Click Home > View > Trace on the ribbon.
- Click View > View > Trace on the ribbon.
- Click Traceability > View > Trace on the ribbon.
- To return to the editor page where you edit your model, do one of the following:
- Click Home > View > Editor on the ribbon.
- Click View > View > Editor on the ribbon.
- Click Traceability > View > Editor on the ribbon.
- When you display the trace view for the first time, it opens in a new tab.
If you already have a trace view open, it opens in that tab, and you cannot display the trace view in multiple tabs.
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The trace view does not update automatically when you edit your model in the editor.
When you edit a model in the editor, the trace view displays a refresh notification and button.
Click the refresh button manually.
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The trace view can be displayed as a docked or floating window.
For information on how to display the trace view as a docked or floating window, see Model Editing > Model Editing Basics > Opening and Editing Multiple Models Simultaneously.
Arranging the target models
To add a lane to the trace view and arrange the target models, follow these steps:
- Execute the [Add Lane] command from the menu button at the top right of each lane to display the hierarchical structure of the model in a tree.
- When you select a model from the tree, a lane is added to the right and the selected model is displayed.
- Even if a model has a derivation relationship recorded, if the model displayed in the lane to the right is not the derivation destination of the derivation relationship, the trace line will not be displayed.
To change the model displayed in the lane, follow the steps below.
- Change the model from the pull-down list at the top of each lane to switch the model displayed in the lane.
To change the order of the lanes, follow the steps below.
- Execute the [Move Left]/[Move Right] command from the menu button at the top right of each lane to swap the order with the lane to the left/right.
Narrow down the traceability check target
To narrow down the elements to be checked for traceability by metamodel entities and not display elements that do not need to be checked in the trace view, follow the steps below.
- Return to the editor page and select the model to hide in the trace view.
- Click [View] > [Pane] > [Inspector] from the ribbon to display the inspector.
- Select the Metamodel tab from the tabs at the top of the Inspector.
- Uncheck the Show in Trace View check box in the View group.
- When you switch to trace view, elements corresponding to the same entity will no longer be displayed in the lane. They will also be excluded from the coverage calculation.
Check traceability across models
To check traceability and the scope of influence across the target model starting from any element displayed in the lane, follow the steps below.
- Click a model element displayed on the lane to highlight related elements based on the derivation relationship and hierarchical structure of the element.
- Expand the tree of each lane as necessary to check the details of each child element.
The meanings of the icons displayed on the lane are as follows.
| Icon position | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Rightmost | Presence or absence of derived relations for which the element is derived |
| Leftmost | Presence or absence of derived relations for which the element is derived |
| Icon type | Meaning |
|---|---|
 | One or more derived relations exist |
 | No derived relations exist |
 | Not included in trace coverage calculation |
| No icon | The element itself cannot have derived relations, but it is a parent element that has descendants that can have derived relations |
The meanings of icons displayed outside the lane are as follows.
| Icon type | Meaning |
|---|---|
 | Derivation destination/source is outside the display range |
If there is a derivation relationship between elements on adjacent lanes, a trace line is displayed between the lanes. The types of trace lines that are displayed are as follows:
| Line type | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Solid | A trace line between elements that have a direct relationship defined between the metamodels of the elements connected by the trace line (Example: A trace line between elements that are displayed with both trees expanded in adjacent lanes) |
| Dot | A trace line between elements that have an indirect relationship defined between the metamodels of the elements connected by the trace line (Example: A trace line between elements that are hidden by collapsing the tree in one of the adjacent lanes) |
- To display only the trace lines between elements represented by solid lines, without displaying the trace lines between child elements represented by dotted lines, disable [Traceability] > [Traceability] > [Trace to Display] > [Show Indirect Trace] from the ribbon.
- To display both dotted and solid lines, enable [Traceability] > [Traceability] > [Trace to Display] > [Show Indirect Trace] from the ribbon.
- To display only trace lines of selected elements, select [Traceability] > [Impact Range] > [Show Only Trace Lines of Selected Elements] from the ribbon.
The scroll bar displays the positions of elements in models related to the selected model elements.
- To prevent the scroll bar from displaying the positions of models related to the selected model elements, disable [Traceability] > [Impact Range] > [Scroll Bar] > [Show Impact Range] from the ribbon.
Narrow the displayed target models
To narrow the displayed target models starting from the selected element and check the traceability and impact range, follow the steps below.
- Select the starting element from the models displayed on the lane.
- Based on the derivation relationship and hierarchical structure of the selected element, related elements are highlighted, so click the [Traceability] > [Impact Range] > [Filter by Impact Range] button on the ribbon.
- Only the related elements that were highlighted are displayed on the lane.
In addition to [Filter by Impact Range], Next Design provides the following ways to narrow down the displayed target models.
These can be used from the buttons displayed at the bottom of each lane.
- Keyword filter
- Elements with no derived source/Elements with no derived destination
Note that only one of these methods of narrowing down the displayed target models can be applied at a time.
- You can update the narrowed down state by selecting another model during [Filter by Impact Range] and clicking the [Filter by Impact Range] button again.
- You can clear the filtered state by clicking the [Clear Filter] button during [Filter by Impact Range].
Check the trace coverage rate for each target model
The percentage displayed at the bottom of each lane allows you to check the coverage rate of trace information with the derivation source (left)/derivation destination (right).
- The coverage rate is calculated for each lane for each trace direction (derivation source/derivation destination) using the following formula.
Coverage rate = Number of elements with one or more derived relationships/Number of elements that can have derived relationships
- If an element itself cannot have derived relationships but its descendants can, it will be displayed as a parent element in the lane tree, but will not be included in the denominator of the calculation formula.
- The percentage is rounded off to the nearest whole number. However, if it is less than 1%, it is rounded up to 1%, and if it is more than 99% and less than 100%, it is rounded down to 99%.
- Calculation is based on trace setting information and product application status.
- If an element can have multiple derived relationships with the same trace direction, if there is at least one derived relationship of any one type, the element is calculated as having a derived relationship.
- For example, if an element of a requirement model can have two derived relationships, one with an element of a logical design model and one with an element of a physical configuration model, if there is at least one derived relationship of the former, it is calculated as having a derived relationship even if there is no derived relationship of the latter.
To specify a specific element as not to be included in the calculation of trace coverage, follow the steps below.
- Right-click on the element on the lane that you want to exclude from the trace coverage calculation to open the context menu.
- From the context menu, execute [Exclude traceability coverage from calculation] to open the [Exclusion setting of Traceability Coverage] dialog.
- From the [Trace Direction] options, select the direction to exclude from the calculation.
- Enter the reason in the [Reasons for excluding the calculation of trace coverage] text box and press the [OK] button.
- The icon on the side selected in [Trace Direction] will change to an icon indicating that it is excluded from the trace coverage calculation.
- Click [Traceability] > [Traceability Coverage] > [Show Models Excluded from Calculation] from the ribbon to display a list of the elements that are excluded from the calculation and the reasons for them.
- To specify metamodel entities and exclude them from the trace coverage calculation, see "Narrowing the traceability check target" above.
- To specify models and relationships to be included in the trace coverage calculation, see Modeling > Traceability Check > Saving and Switching Traceability Check Targets.
Open and check the trace view and model at the same time
Display a model from the trace view
To display a model in a lane in the trace view in the editor, follow the steps below.
- Select the model to display in the editor from the lane and execute the [Show in Editor] command from the context menu.
- The selected model is displayed in a fixed tab.