A Trace Metamodel Proposal Based on the Model Driven Architecture Framework for the Traceability of User Requirements in Data Warehouses - Advanced Information Systems Engineering - page 126

Fig. 3. AMW Metamodel for traceability extended with semantic links for DWs
result of the automatic derivation. A trace link can also have one parent, as well
as a set of children trace links. This is an important feature, since it allows us to
group traces forming hierarchies, providing different levels of detail in the trace
models. Therefore, the trace models allow us to visualize over a hundred traces,
which they typically store, in a scalable way. The elements linked by the traces
are represented by the TraceLinkEnds , which reference the identifiers listed in
the woven models.
In order to add semantics to the traces in the metamodel, we extend the
TraceLink element, aligning the types with the classification made in [26]. We
could use a reduced set of links, since in our case Overlap and Conflict are
very similar. However, for the sake of standarization, we include the whole set.
Nevertheless, in our case, each trace will only have one semantic type attached
(since we do not include roles because they are included at the CIM level).
Therefore, the definition of each trace link type is as follows:
- Satisfiability and Dependency will be used for vertical traceability (between
different layers). In the first case, the traces with this type will be those
coming from the requirements (in the CIM layer) to the elements in the
PIM. In the second case, we will use a specialization of the Dependency type,
Derived from , in order to specify the traces coming from the data sources to
the multidimensional elements at the PIM level.
- Evolution links will be included to handle horizontal traceability which takes
care of element changes at the same layer (e.g. from PIM to PIM).
- Overlap and Conflict will be used for solving conflicts where the same el-
ement comes both from the requirements and from the data sources in a