Compliance Glossary for Confluence

How do I trace a requirement forward?

Forward requirement traceability starts with a governed requirement and follows approved or imported links to dependent requirements, documents, code references, tests, deviations, and approval evidence. In the Enterprise evidence workspace, Forward impact presents retained hops. Candidate and rejected links do not count as governed evidence. Coverage blockers show where the visible path is incomplete.

Last verified against production v6 · 26 September 2026

At a glance

InputActionOutputLimit
Governed requirementUse its stable node identity and recorded sourceVersioned requirement evidenceThe requirement must exist in the deposited graph
Imported or approved linksFollow forward relationshipsOrdered evidence hopsCandidate and rejected links are excluded
Connected evidence nodesPreserve type, version, approval, dates, and provenanceDocuments, code, tests, deviations, or approvalsResults depend on recorded relationships
Traversal boundsApply hop and result limitsBounded graph responseCoverage blockers identify incomplete expansion

How it works

  1. Open Enterprise evidence workspace.
  2. Review Coverage blockers.
  3. If GRAPH_START_REQUIRED appears, the view has no starting evidence node.
  4. Once the requirement graph is loaded, select Forward impact in Trace graph.
  5. Read each relationship and connected evidence node.
  6. Open the evidence reference for any retained hop.
  7. Select Run verification before a formal handoff.

Example

A system requirement connects to a component requirement through a governed derives link. The component requirement has governed links to a controller code reference and its validation test. Forward impact shows that path as separate hops. A candidate link to another test stays outside governed evidence until its approval state changes.

What this does not mean

The graph reports recorded evidence. It does not infer a missing relationship. It does not convert a candidate into approved evidence. A visible path may stop at its configured hop or result bound. Without a stable start node, the workspace reports GRAPH_START_REQUIRED and returns no trace hops. Forward traceability does not certify compliance or approve a release.

Related questions

Next step

Open the requirement in the evidence workspace and review its governed forward path.

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Verification basis: production v6 code, tests, manifest, and operations guidance. Verified 26 September 2026.