With the release of Contour 1.3 users are able to see immediately the project artifacts – and team members working on those items that may be affected. This is one of the primary benefits or implementing project traceability.
For example, if I am a business analyst and I’m about to make a change to a requirement, Contour shows me that Sue is currently working on a design document, Alan is working on a test case and Lisa has already completed the help page. I instantly know who and what may be affected.
If my change is substantial, I can contact the group beforehand to discuss – or I could make the change and have Contour notify the group with a link to the changed item. Everyone stays up to date and current on the latest requirement.
With so many relationships to track on a project - this helps everyone stay on top of who is working on what at any given time. I find that if team members can’t figure this information out in less than 30 seconds, they either make the change and don’t notify anyone or put off making the change. Both of these are bad decisions - and add unneeded risk to the project.
Of course this requires the relationships to be created within the project - but hopefully this feature provides another reason to start implementing traceability.
