When Spreadsheets Aren’t Enough

ABSTRACT

Engineers writing embedded software for 32-bit microcontrollers at the STMicroelectronics campus in Agrate Brianza, Italy used Mentor Graphics' requirements tracing tool, ReqTracer, on a recent project. The tool helped the engineers get away from their heavy use of Excel tables and custom scripting, both of which can be unwieldy for managing requirements. ReqTracer offered an intuitive traceability matrix and allowed for engineers to run various impact analyses, key to communicating with customers and to meeting other implicit requirements in the automotive industry. ReqTracer can also help to comply with various explicit standards, such as Automotive SPICE and, more recently, ISO 26262. The pilot project, which helped the STMicroelectronics team correctly trace requirements through to the source code, was deemed a success and use of ReqTracer at the Agrate Brianza campus continues today.