Tips for working with Report Builder traceability reports

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When you work with traceability reports, consider the following tips.

In traceability reports, use relationship conditions to get different results

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In the Trace relationships and add artifacts section, the link conditions that you choose affect the results in your report. Explore the different options to see which results you get.
Tip: To check your results as you build your report, click Refresh on the Format Results page.

For example, if you want to see the test coverage for requirements in a project (which requirements are validated by a test case), the condition you select for the link type determines the results that you see:

  • Required: Shows only artifacts that have the relationship that you specify.
  • Does not exist: Shows only artifacts that don't have the relationship that you specify. For example, use this option to see gaps in test coverage.
  • Optional: Shows all artifacts regardless of whether they have the relationships that you specify. For example, show all coverage, gaps, and links.

When you combine reports, "Merge" is not always the best option

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When you combine two traceability reports, merging the results might not always show the data that you need in the best format. In each traceability path, if your source artifact is linked to several related artifacts, avoid using the Merge option to combine the data. Instead, consider appending the second path.

About this task

In the following example, you create two reports:
  • Work items that are related to Story 83
  • Requirements that are implemented by Story 83
First, you merge these two traceability paths into a single report, but the list of results is very large, and the data is hard to read and interpret. Instead, you can append the two traceability paths for a shorter list of results that’s easier to understand.

Procedure

  • Create a report of work items that are related to Story 83.
    1. Open Report Builder.
      Go to http://<server_name>:<port>/rs. On the Reports page, click Build report.
    2. Choose a report type.
      • Use the default data source that is configured for your environment, or click the pencil icon Edit, and select a different one from the list.
      • Select the Current Data check box.
    3. Limit the scope of your report by selecting which projects to report on.
      Select the Requirements Management (RM) and Change and Configuration Management (CCM) projects.
    4. Choose an artifact.
      Under Change and Configuration management, expand Work Item, and select Story. Then, click Continue.
    5. Trace relationships and add artifacts.
      In this section, create links from the story artifact type to the related work items. Click Add a relationship and, under Work Item, select Children and Related. Click OK. Select Work Item and click OK.
      The traceability path looks like this:
      Tracing a story to related and child work items
    6. Set conditions to focus on Story 83.
      Click Add condition, and for the story artifact type, set the ID attribute to is 83.
    7. Name and run the report.
      Story 83 has 11 related and child work items.
      Results of the traceability report that shows story 83 and related work items
  • Create a report of requirements that are implemented by Story 83.
    Complete the steps from the previous procedure to create this report. The traceability path looks like this:
    Traceability report that shows what requirements are implemented by story 83
    The results show that 10 requirements are implemented by Story 83.
    Traceability report that shows that 10 requirements are implemented by story 83
  • Combine the two reports by using the Merge option.
    Open the first report and edit it to add a second traceability path.
    1. In the Trace relationships and add artifacts section, select the check box to enable multiple paths and click Add a relationship to create the second traceability path.
      Adding a second traceability path
    2. Select the Merge option and click OK.
      Merging results in the same report
    3. Click Add a relationship and select Implements Requirements. From the list of artifacts, select Requirement.
      The traceability paths look like this:
      Two traceability paths in the same report
    4. Run the report and review the data.
      Results of the merged traceability reports

    Because Story 83 has 11 related and child work items and it also implements 10 requirements, the merged report shows 110 items. Each possible story-work item-requirement relationship is listed. The results are hard to read.

What to do next

To see all work items and requirements related to Story 83 in the same report, append the two traceability paths instead. The report lists 21 items and the related work items and requirements are grouped in a way that is much easier to interpret:
Report with appended traceability paths