Enforce Traceability Between Commits, Work Items, and Acceptance Tests

Description

This rule mandates that every commit must reference at least one tracked work item—such as a Jira ticket or bug ID—and must be verifiably linked to automated tests that demonstrate acceptance. It ensures end-to-end traceability from business requirements through development and verification.

Purpose

To strengthen auditability, defect tracking, and quality assurance by linking code changes to specific requirements and confirming those requirements through passing automated tests. This practice supports secure SDLC compliance and agile traceability mandates.

Scope

• All protected branches and tracked commits
• Feature branches and hotfixes
• Java, Python, TypeScript, and feature test files
• Applies to all developers and QA contributors

SDLC Integration

• Planning: Work items have unique ticket IDs and test criteria
• Analysis: Acceptance criteria mapped to test tags
• Design: Coverage of scenarios ensured by traceable tests
• Development: Commits and PRs must include ticket IDs
• Testing: Tests must be tagged and matched to tickets
• Deployment: Only verified, ticket-linked code is deployable
• Maintenance: Full history of changes and why they were made

Standards

Traceability and Verification

• Every commit MUST include a valid reference to a story, task, or defect

(e.g., ABC-1234)

• Associated tests MUST contain a matching tag or annotation for the

referenced ticket

• Pull requests MUST be rejected if no ticket reference is detected
• CI pipelines MUST validate test-tag presence for referenced tickets

Actionable Metrics

Implementation

Configuration Requirements

• Use conventional commit formats or PR naming with ticket ID prefix (e.g.,

ABC-1234)

• Annotate automated tests with ticket tags (@ABC-1234)
• Configure CI to fail PRs missing linked ticket or tag mismatch

Example: Correct Implementation

# Git commit or PR title
git commit -m "ABC-1234 Add bulk upload support"

# Acceptance test tag
@Test
@Tag("ABC-1234")
void shouldSupportBulkUpload() {
    ...
}