What is a Requirements Traceability Matrix and How to Generate One in Jira
If you’ve ever been through a product audit and finds it difficult to prove that every requirement was tested and validated, you already know the pain. Spreadsheets get outdated. Jira tickets pile up. And by the time an auditor asks “show me the chain from requirement to its test evidence,” you’re digging through hundreds of work item links manually.
That’s exactly the problem a Requirements Traceability Matrix (RTM) is meant to solve and why teams that skip it tend to fail audits.
What is a Requirements Traceability Matrix?
A Requirements Traceability Matrix is a document that aligns every requirement in a project to its corresponding design, implementation, and test evidence. Think of it as a chain of answers — like: “For this requirement, can I prove it was built and verified?”
A basic RTM has three core columns:
- Requirement: What needs to be built (e.g. “The system shall log all user actions”)
- Implementation: The Jira work item
- Verification: The test case or QA ticket that validates it
In regulated industries, medical devices, defence systems, automotive software, aerospace, an RTM isn’t optional. Standards like IEC-62304, DO-178C, ASPICE, and ISO 9001 require traceability documentation before a product can be released or certified.
But even outside regulated industries, RTMs are valuable. They help engineering teams understand the impact of a requirement change, spot untested functionality before release, and avoid the classic “we built it but nobody tested it” problem.
Why Teams Struggle to Maintain RTMs Manually
Most teams start with a spreadsheet. It works for the first time. But eventually the workload piles up and by the time of fifth run, a complete disaster.
Here’s why manual RTMs break down:
They go stale instantly: Every time a requirement changes, a test is added, or an work item is closed, the spreadsheet needs to be updated manually. It’s a cumbersome task to do this consistently.
They don’t scale: A project with 50 requirements is manageable. But let’s say a large scale project has like 500 requirements . Manually cross-referencing hundreds of Jira work items against requirements and test cases takes hours, eventually making a lot of room for human error.
They miss gaps: The most common audit finding is an “orphan requirement” a requirement with no downstream test link. In a large spreadsheet, these are nearly impossible to spot visually. Auditors find them easily. You shouldn’t be the last to know.
They’re not live: A spreadsheet is a snapshot. By the time you export it for an audit, it’s already out of date.
How to Generate an RTM in Jira Using Links Explorer
If your team already uses Jira, the good news is that your traceability data is likely already there, buried in work item links. Every “is tested by”, “implements”, or “is blocked by” relationship between your Jira work items is a traceability link waiting to be surfaced.
Links Explorer Traceability & Hierarchy reads those existing work item links and generates a live RTM automatically with zero configuration required.
Here’s how it works in practice:
- Define your scope using a JQL filter: for example, all requirements in a specific project or epic
- Links Explorer maps the upstream and downstream work item links recursively, following the chain from requirement → implementation → test
- The live RTM is generated on demand: showing every requirement, what it links to, and whether verification evidence exists
- Orphan requirements are flagged automatically: requirements with no downstream test links are surfaced before your auditor even finds them
- Export to CSV or Markdown: for audit submission, Change Control Board packages, or compliance records
The result is an audit-ready RTM that reflects the actual state of your Jira project, not a spreadsheet which someone last updated three weeks ago.
Real Use Cases: Who Needs This?
Links Explorer is used by engineering and compliance teams at Tesla, ARM, General Dynamics, Nokia, Samsung, and NASA across industries where traceability isn’t optional.
General software teams: Even without a compliance requirement, knowing which requirements are untested before a release gate is simply good engineering practice. Links Explorer makes this visible in one view.“Managing large or complex projects in Jira can be overwhelming. Links Explorer helped us break down complex projects into manageable chunks — especially the tree view, which makes it easy to identify dependencies and potential bottlenecks.” Ankit Negi, Jira user
Medical device software (IEC-62304): Every software requirement must be traceable to a software item and a verification activity. Links Explorer generates this chain directly from Jira, making audit preparation a matter of minutes rather than days.
Automotive software (ASPICE): Change impact analysis is a core ASPICE requirement. When a requirement changes, Links Explorer maps every downstream work item affected, so your Change Control Board submission includes full impact visibility.
Defence and aerospace (DO-178C): Requirement coverage must be demonstrable at every level. Orphan requirements, those with no verification link are an automatic finding. Links Explorer detects them within your defined scope before the audit begins.
Why Not Just Build This Manually in Jira?
Jira’s built-in work item linking is powerful, but it doesn’t surface traceability in a structured way. You can see an work item's links one at a time, but you can’t generate a matrix view across an entire project, detect coverage gaps, or export a audit ready document not without a plugin.
Most traceability tools in the Atlassian Marketplace are either built for older Data Center deployments, require significant configuration to set up, or focus on dependency visualization rather than audit-ready output.
Links Explorer is Cloud-native, independently security reviewed by Atlassian (Cloud Fortified), and requires no configuration to get started. It works with the work item links your team already has in Jira.
Getting Started
If your team uses Jira and needs to maintain traceability for compliance, for release gates, or simply to keep requirements and tests in sync, Links Explorer is worth trying.
It’s free for teams of up to 10 users, and available on the Atlassian Marketplace for All type of hostings, Cloud, Data Center, Atlassian Government Cloud.
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