Patent attributes
A requirements-traceability system extracts and classifies project requirements stored in a set of source documents. If a source document is unstructured, such as a natural-language word-processing file, the system uses a self-learning or cognitive natural-language tool to inferentially infer requirements in that document. Each requirement may be composed of more detailed sub-requirements in parent-child relationships. Requirements are reclassified into a standardized classification scheme and stored in a standardized hierarchical data structure in which each level corresponds to a requirement's relative degree of granularity. The tree is updated whenever requirements are revised, allowing users and downstream applications to bidirectionally trace each requirement's ancestors and descendants and to review and audit revision histories of the project's entire requirements hierarchy.
