Two vital characteristics of a good project are transparency and traceability
You want buy-in from all stakeholders. The best way to do this is with transparency and traceability
Transparency results in everyone having the same understanding of the current state. Everyone knows the issues and shortcomings, everyone knows the wins and outcomes.
Traceability results in everyone knowing how the current state was arrived at. Traceability gives the history of decisions and a history of what is being created. Traceability includes the traceability of requirements from the high-level business requirements or outcomes the business is looking for to the solution requirements to the testing results. Everyone is working towards the same end so everyone needs to know how things are related.
Traceability in the project plan means that everyday tasks are traced back to the project plan and the project plan is traced back to the overall road map. The traceability can be used to see the bigger picture or to go from the bigger picture down to the detailed tasks.
Without traceability, an individual doesn’t know if what they are doing is moving the project forward or moving the project back.
Traceability also allows new members to learn the history of the project and how all parts of the project fit together.