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Overview

The Whole RTM (Requirements Traceability Matrix) PowerSheet provides a comprehensive five-tier view spanning customer requirements through system, subsystem, and design requirements down to verification test cases. This sheet enables safety engineers, requirements managers, and auditors to validate bidirectional traceability across the entire V-model hierarchy required by ISO 26262 Part 8 Clause 6.

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Open the Whole RTM Sheet

  1. Navigate to Solution Template space from the sidebar
  2. Click Whole RTM Sheet in the document list
  3. Wait for PowerSheet to load the multi-tier traceability view (typically 5-15 seconds for projects with 100+ requirements)
The sheet loads with all requirements expanded by default, showing the complete traceability chain.

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Understanding the Five-Tier Layout

The Whole RTM organizes requirements into five color-coded column groups representing the V-model decomposition: diagram Each tier represents one relationship expansion in the RTM domain model:
  • Customer Requirements (green): Top-level user needs and specifications
  • System Requirements (purple): System-level functional requirements (expanded via refines link)
  • Subsystem Requirements (teal): Component-scoped requirements (expanded via refines link)
  • Design Requirements (blue): Implementation-level specifications (expanded via refines link)
  • Verification Tests (orange): Test cases that verify design requirements (expanded via verifies link)

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Collapse/Expand Column Groups

Click the column group header to collapse entire tiers:
  • Click Customer Requirements header → collapses to show only customer requirement titles
  • Click System Requirements header → collapses to show only system requirement descriptions
  • Repeat for any tier to maximize screen space while maintaining context
Collapsed groups display their collapseTo field (typically title or description) to preserve traceability context.

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Group by Document

Use the hidden grouping column to organize requirements by source document:
  1. Right-click any column header → Group by → Document
  2. Requirements automatically organize into collapsible document sections
  3. Click document name to expand/collapse all requirements from that specification
This pattern is essential for multi-document projects where System Requirements Specification is split across subsystems or features.

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Focus on Specific Requirements

Use the PowerSheet filter bar to isolate requirements:
  • Filter by Classification → SC or CC to show only safety-critical or conformance-critical requirements
  • Filter by Status → approved to show only baselined requirements
  • Filter by ASIL (if visible) → ASIL C or ASIL D to show high-integrity requirements
Use Tab to move between cells horizontally (across tiers) and ↓/↑ arrows to move vertically between requirements. This enables rapid visual scanning of traceability chains without mouse clicks.

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Verify Traceability Completeness

Empty cells in the RTM indicate traceability gaps:
  • Empty system requirements cell → customer requirement not yet refined to system level
  • Empty design requirements cell → subsystem requirement missing detailed design decomposition
  • Empty verification tests cell → design requirement without verification evidence
Do NOT create placeholder work items just to fill empty RTM cells. Instead, create substantive requirements/tests with proper technical content, or acknowledge the gap as intentional scope limitation in gap analysis reports.

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Check Cardinality

Valid traceability chains may have multiple items per tier:
  • One customer requirement → three system requirements (decomposition)
  • One system requirement → two design requirements (alternate implementations)
  • One design requirement → four verification test cases (multiple test scenarios)
Each relationship creates a new sub-row in the PowerSheet, expanding the grid vertically.

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Cross-Reference Coverage Metrics

Compare RTM visual inspection with automated coverage reports:
  1. Open Home Dashboard from sidebar
  2. Scroll to Traceability Coverage section
  3. Compare coverage percentages with RTM empty cells:
    • “System Reqs → Design Reqs: 78%” should match ~22% empty design requirement cells
    • “Design Reqs → Test Cases: 100%” should show zero empty test case cells
Discrepancies indicate either RTM query parameter issues or stale cache (refresh PowerSheet with Ctrl+F5).

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Create Missing Work Items Inline

The Whole RTM supports inline entity creation to close traceability gaps without leaving the sheet:

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Create System Requirements from Customer Requirements

  1. Locate customer requirement with empty system requirements cell
  2. Click the empty cell in the System Requirements column
  3. PowerSheet displays entity factory picker → select System Requirement
  4. Enter title and press Enter → new system requirement created in the configured SRS document
  5. Link automatically created with refines relationship

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Create Verification Test Cases from Design Requirements

  1. Locate design requirement with empty verification test cell
  2. Click the empty cell in the Verification Tests column
  3. Select Verification Test Case from picker
  4. Enter test case title → new test case created in Testing/DesignVerificationSpecification
  5. Link automatically created with verifies relationship
Inline creation places work items in pre-configured target documents defined in the PowerSheet YAML entityFactory section. If new work items appear in the wrong document, contact your configuration manager to update the entity factory target document paths.

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Export for Audits

Generate static RTM snapshots for ISO 26262 compliance audits:
  1. Open Whole RTM Sheet
  2. Apply filters to show only approved requirements (Status = approved)
  3. Click Export button (top-right toolbar) → Excel
  4. PowerSheet exports all visible rows with formatting preserved
  5. Save as RTM_Baseline_<date>.xlsx for audit package
Alternatively, use Print to PDF for read-only audit evidence with watermarked headers showing export timestamp.

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Comparison with Component RTM Sheet

FeatureWhole RTMComponent RTM
ScopeAll requirements across projectSingle component/subsystem
Tiers5 (Customer → System → Subsystem → Design → Tests)3 (System → Subsystem → Design)
Use CaseProject-wide traceability validation, audit preparationFocused subsystem design review
PerformanceSlower load for large projects (>500 requirements)Fast load (scoped to component)
Document FilterNone (shows all documents)Filtered by component document parameter
Use Whole RTM for comprehensive traceability validation; use Component RTM for day-to-day subsystem engineering work.

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Verification Steps

After configuring filters and grouping, verify the RTM is displaying correctly:
  • All five tiers visible with color-coded headers (green/purple/teal/blue/orange)
  • No error messages in PowerSheet status bar (bottom-left)
  • Requirement counts match dashboard statistics (±5% for multi-document rounding)
  • Empty cells highlight gaps that align with coverage percentage metrics from Home Dashboard
  • Inline creation works when clicking empty cells (entity factory picker appears)

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See Also