Multi-level traceability comparison and change visualisation powered by Apache Velocity. Compare any two collection baselines — instantly see what changed, at every level of your requirements hierarchy.
The Redline Report Widget is a powerful, enterprise-grade change visualisation and traceability comparison tool built on the Apache Velocity template engine within the Siemens Polarion ALM platform.
It delivers real-time, side-by-side comparison of work item hierarchies across multiple collection revisions, making it an indispensable component for organisations operating under rigorous quality management, regulatory compliance, and parallel development workflows.
Changes are rendered using a redline approach — additions highlighted in green, deletions highlighted in red with strikethrough. The widget reduces manual audit effort by up to 80%, enabling teams to identify specification drift within seconds instead of hours.
Every feature designed around the real-world needs of regulated engineering teams working with Polarion baselines.
Select any two collection revisions within Polarion and instantly generate a side-by-side structural comparison across the full work item hierarchy.
Additions appear in green, deletions in red with strikethrough, and both old and new values are shown for modifications — instantly communicating the nature of every change.
Renders directly within a Polarion Live Report page with no page reload required. Select collections from dropdowns and the table updates dynamically in real time.
Presents the complete work item hierarchy from User Needs through System Requirements, Software Requirements, Test Cases, and Defects in a single unified table view.
Navigate to any historical revision of any collection. Compare baseline-to-baseline, sprint-to-sprint, or release-to-release with full chronological flexibility.
Apply Lucene query syntax to narrow the comparison scope. Filter by type, severity, assignee, or any custom field — ensuring the report surfaces only the items that matter.
Configure the primary column to support requirements-down analysis (User Needs first) or test-up analysis (Test Cases first). Adapts to your team's review workflow.
Expand and collapse hierarchy nodes, sort by any column, and drill down into individual work item changes — all within the familiar Polarion Live Report environment.
Five levels of requirements and verification traceability — tracked and compared in a single widget.
Four clean architectural layers from configuration to rendered output.
parameters.vm defines project work item types, hierarchy mapping, display fields, and query filters — a single file controls all widget behaviour.
The Polarion Collections API fetches work items from both selected collection revisions, applying configured Lucene query filters and type constraints.
Field-level diff logic classifies every work item as unchanged, added, deleted, or modified — computing both old and new values for changed fields.
Apache Velocity macros transform the diff output into HTML with colour-coded redline styling, injected directly into the Polarion Live Report page.
Pre-configured hierarchy mappings for the five most common regulated engineering domains.
The widget's audit-trail output and bidirectional traceability directly support these regulatory requirements.
| Framework | Domain | Widget Capability |
|---|---|---|
| FDA 21 CFR Part 11 | Medical / Pharma | Audit-trail visual evidence; integrates with Polarion electronic records for electronic signature workflows |
| ISO 13485:2016 | Medical Device QMS | Design history file (DHF) change documentation; controlled comparison records for design reviews |
| IEC 62304 | Medical Device Software | Software requirement change tracking across versions; full traceability from user needs to test evidence |
| ISO 14971 | Risk Management | Identifies new or changed risk controls across baselines; links defects to safety-critical requirements |
| ISO 26262 | Automotive Safety | Safety requirement change impact analysis; ASIL allocation visibility across development baselines |
| DO-178C / DO-254 | Aerospace | Software and hardware requirement change evidence for certification data packages and DER review |
| ASPICE | Automotive Process | Process-level traceability for SWE.1–SWE.6; baseline comparison supports maturity assessments |
| GxP / CSV / CSA | Pharma | Computerised system validation change evidence; URS-to-test-protocol traceability across releases |
All widget behaviour is controlled via a single parameters.vm file, organised into four categories.
Polarion collection ID for the first (older) baseline to compare. Accepts any valid collection identifier.
Polarion collection ID for the second (newer) baseline. The diff output compares B against A.
Specific revision numbers within each collection. Supports any historical revision for point-in-time comparison.
The Polarion project identifier. Collections and work items are resolved within this project scope.
The top-level work item type that anchors the hierarchy (e.g. userNeed, safetyGoal, systemRequirement).
Ordered list of work item types forming the hierarchy chain. Supports up to 5 levels of parent-child traceability.
Maps each hierarchy level transition to the Polarion link role used (e.g. refines, verifies, derives). Must match project configuration.
List of work item field IDs to include as columns in the redline table (e.g. title, description, severity, assignee).
Human-readable column header overrides mapped to each displayField ID.
Boolean. When true, unchanged work items are included in the output table alongside changed items.
Sort direction (asc/desc) by primary column, and maximum number of result rows to render per page.
Lucene query string applied to both collections before comparison. Filters the scope of work items included in the diff.
Secondary filter expressions for further narrowing by severity, module, component, or any custom field. Supports AND/OR operators.
No additional infrastructure required. Runs entirely within your existing Polarion installation.
Copy the widget template files to your Polarion reporting extension directory. No server restart or additional installation required.
Edit parameters.vm to match your project's work item types, hierarchy structure, traceability link roles, and display preferences.
Ensure the two collection baselines you want to compare exist within your Polarion project. Any existing collections and their revision history are supported.
Insert the Redline Report Widget onto any Polarion Live Report page using the standard widget insertion workflow.
Select two collection revisions from the widget dropdowns — the redline comparison table renders in real time with full colour-coded change highlighting.
System Requirements
From the engineer at the workstation to the quality manager preparing for audit — every role gains from redline visibility.
Get in touch to request a live demo or discuss how the Redline Report Widget fits your Polarion configuration and regulatory context.