Traceability diagrams best practices

Recommendation

Leverage diagram design best practices to enhance readability of diagrams and avoid unnecessary complexity and rendering times.

Impact

• Diagram rendering is faster.
• Improved readability for better user experience and utility.

Best practice recommendations

• Use the end-to-end Traverse option in General Properties to make it easier for users to read the diagrams in a single left-to-right direction.
• Use property overlays wherever possible to simplify the number of elements in the diagram. This will provide clearer illustrations of relationships that can be understood by businesses.
• Create multiple context-specific views based on the needs of different users.
• Avoid diagramming complex relationships. For more information, go to our best practice on re-crafting complex relationships as multiple simple relationships.
• Use boxed or boxing style in the edge configuration to clarify relationships with optimal readability.
• Use collapsed as the boxing node option in Node Properties for boxes that have high granularity, for example, columns, fields, and terms.
• Use the edges' appropriate direction, outgoing or incoming, in Node Properties based on the relationship.
• Select the Context checkbox in Node Properties to bring assets into central focus when the diagram is rendered. This will give the asset higher visibility in the diagram.

Topic area

Operating Model → Execution and Monitoring Concepts → Traceability

Additional information

For more information, go to the following resources:

• Diagrams
• Diagram editor
• Tips for creating correct diagram view with the diagram view text editor
• Picture editor