ADAMS Re-Trace: a traceability recovery tool

We present the traceability recovery tool developed in the ADAMS artefact management system. The tool is based on an information retrieval technique, namely latent semantic indexing and aims at supporting the software engineer in the identification of the traceability links between artefacts of different types. We also present a case study involving seven student projects, which represented an ideal workbench for the tool. The results emphasise the benefits provided by the tool in terms of new traceability links discovered, in addition to the links manually traced by the software engineer. Moreover, the tool was also helpful in identifying cases of lack of similarity between artefacts manually traced by the software engineer, thus revealing inconsistencies in the usage of domain terms in these artefacts. This information is valuable to assess the quality of the produced artefacts.