Dynamically Tracing Non-Functional Requirements through Design Pattern Invariants

Nonfunctional requirements (NFRs) are critical to the successful implementation of almost every nontrivial software system. This is evidenced by the fact that many documented system failures are directly attributed to the inadequate implementation and maintenance of NFRs. Although tracing NFRs could alleviate this problem through supporting activities such as requirements validation, impact analysis, and regression testing, the task is complicated by their tendency to exhibit complex interactions and to have a global and far-reaching impact upon a software system. This paper describes an approach for establishing traceability between certain types of NFRs and design and code artifacts, through the use of design patterns as intermediary objects. By synergistically utilizing both static and dynamically generated links, EBTDP minimizes the cost and effort of establishing and maintaining traceability links