Software Engineering

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CHAPTER 4 
Understanding the Software Project Environment
There is a minimum set of traceability relationships that must be managed to 
support software verification and validation evaluations and configuration audits. 
These are shown as a solid line in 
Figure 4.6
.
4.3.7 
Trade-off analysis
Trade-off analysis is an exploratory tool by which stakeholder needs, software 
requirements, or architectural design alternatives are assessed to determine a pre-
ferred course of action. A software trade-off analysis should be conducted when-
ever there are competing solutions under consideration rather than making 
assumptions or design decisions with less-than-ideal information. It is important to 
understand how each decision affects the software product architecture in terms of 
complexity, effort required to implement the solution, and impact on post-develop-
ment processes and life-cycle costs. Each potential alternative must be evaluated 
from several perspectives, including performance, innovativeness, cost to imple-
ment, usability, customer appreciation, competitive posture, and post-development 
sustainment ramifications. In addition, alternatives should be assessed to understand 
FIGURE 4.6
Recommended requirements traceability coverage.

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