5.3Building Traceability in Practice

Step 1: Link Requirements to Stories

In Jira, ensure every user story has a link to its requirement (or is itself the requirement for smaller teams):

Epic: SHOP-100 (Checkout Redesign)
  └── Story: SHOP-456 (Credit card payment)
       └── Requirement: REQ-003
  └── Story: SHOP-457 (Coupon support)
       └── Requirement: REQ-004

Step 2: Link Test Cases to Requirements

In your test management platform, link each test case to the requirement it verifies:

TC-401 (Pay with credit card)
  └── Verifies: REQ-003
  └── Part of: SHOP-456

TC-403 (Apply valid coupon)
  └── Verifies: REQ-004
  └── Part of: SHOP-457

Step 3: Link Defects to Test Cases

When a test fails and you file a bug, link the bug to the test case:

SHOP-812 (Expired coupon causes 500 error)
  └── Found by: TC-404
  └── Blocks: REQ-004
  └── Fix PR: github.com/org/repo/pull/234

Step 4: Generate the RTM

Most test management platforms can generate the RTM automatically from these links. If not, use a JQL query or export to build one:

-- Find requirements without linked test cases
project = SHOP AND type = "Requirement"
AND NOT issueFunction in linkedIssuesOf("type = Test")