What is the relationship between requirements and traceability during a project lifecycle?

The relationship between requirements and traceability during a project lifecycle is fundamentally about ensuring that all requirements are connected throughout their journey from inception to implementation. Traceability refers to the ability to link requirements back to their origins and forward to their outputs. This means that every requirement can be tracked to ensure it is addressed in the project, and its compliance can be verified against the intended objectives.

This linkage is crucial for several reasons. It allows stakeholders to understand how requirements evolve, verifies that the final deliverables meet the specified needs, and facilitates changes by showing which requirements are impacted by alterations in project scope or objectives. Moreover, it supports effective communication among project teams and stakeholders, ensuring that everyone is aligned on what needs to be delivered.

In contrast, the other choices do not accurately reflect the critical role of traceability in relation to requirements. For example, while predicting future changes and providing budget estimates are essential project management aspects, they do not directly encapsulate the essence of how requirements and traceability interact. The proper functioning of traceability hinges on the connection of all requirements and their verification, an aspect reflected in the correctness of the chosen answer.