Requirements traceability is the ability to describe and follow the life of a requirement in both a forward and backward direction, from its origin, through its development and specification, to its subsequent deployment and use, and through periods of ongoing refinement and iteration in any of these phases1. Requirements traceability helps to ensure that the requirements are aligned with the business need, the solution scope, and the project objectives, and that they are verified and validated throughout the project lifecycle2. Requirements traceability also supports change management, impact analysis, risk management, and quality assurance3. To trace a requirement, one needs to look at the requirement and the others to which it is related, and document the relationships among them. These relationships can be horizontal (between requirements at the same level of detail) or vertical (between requirements at different levels of detail). The most common types of relationships are derivation, satisfaction, verification, and refinement4. A requirement can be traced to other artifacts created by the team, such as design documents, test cases, models, and code, as well as to solution components, such as features, functions, and interfaces5. Therefore, option D is the correct answer, as it captures the essence of requirements traceability.

References:

Requirements traceability - Wikipedia, first paragraph

Business Analysis Expert Certification, CCBA® | IIBA®, section “BABOK® Guide v3”, chapter 6, section 6.1.4

A Guide to Understanding the Requirements Traceability Matrix, section “Why Is Requirements Traceability Important?”

A Guide to the Business Analysis Body of Knowledge® (BABOK® Guide), version 3, chapter 6, section 6.1.4.1

What Is Traceability? | Perforce, first paragraph