Eco tracing - a systems engineering method for efficient tracelink modelling

Using expertise and combining functionalities from different domains has led to a significant increase of information engineers have to deal with. It is hardly possible to identify influenced components in activities like change requests. A model containing tracelinks between the elements of involved partial models as an essential part of PLM based Systems Engineering helps to overcome this deficit. The main obstacle for a broad introduction of traceability is the significant workload involved in creating tracelink models as every element combination has to be examined for dependencies. This calls for an approach to support developers in creating tracelink models more efficiently. The presented approach Eco Tracing allows developers to significantly Economize modelling effort. In order to do so, the method uses the hierarchical structure of many models and a top-down analyzing approach to exclude element combinations prior user examination. Furthermore Eco Tracing allows choosing the desired level of detail flexibly while modelling. Eco Tracing is a promising approach helping to establish traceability in product development by reducing modelling effort significantly.