Aplicações de blockchain na rastreabilidade de requisitos de software

Abstract

This work presents a critical-analytical literature review, with a qualitative approach, on the application of blockchain technology in software requirements traceability. The main objective is to identify and critically analyze the architectures proposed in the literature and evaluate how they address the inherent technical challenges of the technology. The search was conducted in the IEEE Xplore, Scopus, and Google Scholar databases, resulting in the selection of nine primary studies published between 2021 and 2025. The results indicate a predominant use of smart contracts on the Ethereum platform, alongside innovative approaches using neural blockchains and graph databases, generally adopting hybrid storage strategies (on-chain and off-chain via IPFS) to mitigate costs. Although blockchain offers immutability, transparency, and auditability for requirements tracking, the research field is still in its early stages of maturity. The studies are predominantly prototypes in controlled environments, with significant gaps regarding interoperability with market tools (such as Jira and GitHub), insufficient scalability analyses in real-world scenarios, and superficial treatment of privacy. In conclusion, while the theoretical potential is substantial, the industrial adoption of blockchain in requirements traceability still requires empirical validation of its cost-benefit ratio compared to traditional solutions.