Introducing Trace Labels in OpenRose

 


Traceability has always been a core part of requirements management, and with our latest update to OpenRose, we’re making it even more meaningful. The new Trace Label feature allows users to capture the purpose and intent behind every link between requirements. This simple addition brings clarity, context, and richer understanding to your requirement relationships.

Welcome to OpenRose — a free and open‑source requirements management tool available at github.com/openros.

Exploring Trace Labels in a Real Project

In today’s demo, we walk through the Charity Fundraising project. When viewing the project in the tree view, you’ll notice a large number of requirements organized in a structured hierarchy.

For this demonstration, we focus on the requirement “Publish and Promote”, which has two parent traces. The first parent is “Engage Participants and Volunteers”, located under Fundraising Event Execution. The purpose of this requirement is to gather information about event participants and later send them promotional material they can engage with.

Since the output of “Engage Participants and Volunteers” directly feeds into “Publish and Promote,” we label this trace as input. This label was not previously available, but with the new feature, we can now add custom text‑based labels to any link within OpenRose.

Next, we look at the second parent requirement: “Plan Video Content.” Its purpose is to define what content should be produced for participants and customers. Before producing videos or reels, we need to plan what key moments from the event should be highlighted. Once the content is planned and produced, it can then be published and promoted.

Because “Publish and Promote” depends on the completion of “Plan Video Content,” we label this trace as dependency.

Returning to “Publish and Promote,” we now see both labels clearly displayed, each describing the purpose of its respective trace.

Trace Labels in Copies and Baselines

Trace labels are preserved across project operations. When you create a copy of a project, the labels applied in the source project are carried over to the target project. This ensures consistency when duplicating or branching your work.

Baselines behave slightly differently. A baseline is a snapshot of your project at a specific point in time. If a baseline was created before trace labels were added, it will not contain those labels — and because baselines are immutable, they cannot be modified. However, when you create a new baseline after adding trace labels, the labels will appear correctly in the baseline’s traceability view.

Trace Labels in Export and Import

Trace labels are also included when exporting a project to JSON. At the bottom of the exported file, you’ll find the traceability information, including the labels such as “input” and “dependency.” When importing this JSON file back into OpenRose, the labels are restored exactly as they were in the source project.

Trace Labels in Mermaid Diagrams

Another powerful use of trace labels is in Mermaid diagrams. From any project or requirement, you can generate Mermaid flowchart text. When pasted into mermaid.live, it produces a visual diagram of your requirement structure.

These diagrams now include trace labels, making it easier for stakeholders to understand the purpose behind each connection. For example, “Plan Video Content” appears as a dependency for “Publish and Promote,” while “Engage Participants and Volunteers” appears as an input. This visual clarity is especially helpful when discussing specific sections of a project with teammates, suppliers, partners, or business users.

Trace Labels and AI Platforms

Because OpenRose exports data in JSON — including descriptions in Markdown and trace labels — this information can be passed directly to AI platforms. With the added context from trace labels, AI tools can better understand your requirements, dependencies, and relationships, enabling more accurate and meaningful responses or generated outputs.

Final Thoughts

Trace Labels bring a new level of clarity and expressiveness to OpenRose. Whether you’re reviewing traceability, creating baselines, exporting data, or generating diagrams, these labels help communicate the intent behind your requirement relationships.

If you find this feature useful, feel free to share OpenRose with your colleagues, teams, and communities. OpenRose is free, open‑source, and available for everyone at github.com/openros.

Thanks for your time, and happy requirements management.

OpenRose, a free and open-source requirements management application / tool. For more information, visit 

https://github.com/openrose




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