Traceability between system artefacts is a key activity to ensure that a critical system’s lifecycle has progressed adequately and that characteristics of and between the artefacts are fulfilled. For example, it must be typically ensured that all system requirements are satisfied by some system design element and validated by some test case.

Knowledge-centric traceability management was developed in the AMASS project [KCT1]. It is based on the RSHP model ([KCT3]; see figure below), which allows the representation of any type of information or knowledge about a domain, including the semantics of the element under consideration. RSHP enables knowledge-centric systems engineering, which as a specialisation of model-based systems engineering based on the idea that all systems engineering processes are affected by the existence of a knowledge base (ontology) about a system and its lifecycle.

As outlined in the figure below, traceability is managed in the approach though Traceability Projects that contain Traceability Modules, which in turn consist of traces. A traceability module is a special kind of RSHP artefact whose traces link elements of two blocks (e.g. requirements in an Excel file and the elements of a Simulink model). The source and target elements of a trace will be part of the source and target block, respectively, of its traceability module. Impact analysis could be performed based on the information of a traceability module. Finally, this RSHP-based approach enables the evaluation of the adequacy of a trace. First, two elements might be linked but a relationship might actually not exist between them, or it might not seem so. Second, a linked element could be modified, and its traces might be become invalid. Tools implementing the RSHP model could support such actions because the aim is to represent not only metadata about artefacts but also artefact content.