Computer-implemented method for managing traceability links in a software development project, including - storing, in a traceability management storage, a plurality of surrogates (54, 56) for development artifacts (40, 46), - said development artifacts including artifact content of at least one of the types chosen from requirement, design, code, test, test result, or issue, - said development artifacts (40, 46) being of a plurality of different storage format types editable and/ or visualizable by associated development tools, - said development artifacts (40, 46) being stored in one or more artifact storage (44, 45) different from said traceability management storage, - said surrogates comprising at least a first surrogate for a first development artifact and a second surrogate for a second development artifact, - each of said surrogates (54, 56) comprising at least an identification of the associated development artifact (40, 46), a type of the artifact content of the associated development artifact (40, 46), a storage format type of the associated development artifact, and one or more attributes representative of at least a portion of said artifact content, said surrogates (54, 56) not comprising the entire artifact content of the associated development artifact (40, 46), - and storing at least one traceability link in said traceability management storage, said traceability link comprising at least a pointer to said first and second surrogates (54, 56), - wherein the computer-implemented method is characterized by said surrogates (54, 56) for storage in said traceability management storage are automatically created by read-only access to an associated development artifact (40, 46), - and wherein said traceability link is automatically created by providing at least one derivation rule for deriving a traceability dependency between development artifacts (40, 46), said derivation rule including instructions to access said attributes stored in said surrogates (54, 56) to identify a traceability dependency between at least two of said development artifacts (40, 46), said derivation rule comprising at least one condition including a relational operator used when accessing one or more values from said first surrogate, optionally combining the values, and comparing the result with values or combined values obtained from said second surrogate to identify said traceability dependency, - applying said derivation rule to automatically identify a traceability dependency, - and storing said traceability link between said surrogates (54, 56) associated with said development artifacts (40, 46) if said traceability dependency is identified. - storing, in a traceability management storage, a plurality of surrogates (54, 56) for development artifacts (40, 46), - said development artifacts including artifact content of at least one of the types chosen from requirement, design, code, test, test result, or issue, - said development artifacts (40, 46) being of a plurality of different storage format types editable and/ or visualizable by associated development tools, - said development artifacts (40, 46) being stored in one or more artifact storage (44, 45) different from said traceability management storage, - said development artifacts including artifact content of at least one of the types chosen from requirement, design, code, test, test result, or issue, - said development artifacts (40, 46) being of a plurality of different storage format types editable and/ or visualizable by associated development tools, - said development artifacts (40, 46) being stored in one or more artifact storage (44, 45) different from said traceability management storage, - said surrogates comprising at least a first surrogate for a first development artifact and a second surrogate for a second development artifact, - each of said surrogates (54, 56) comprising at least an identification of the associated development artifact (40, 46), a type of the artifact content of the associated development artifact (40, 46), a storage format type of the associated development artifact, and one or more attributes representative of at least a portion of said artifact content, said surrogates (54, 56) not comprising the entire artifact content of the associated development artifact (40, 46), - and storing at least one traceability link in said traceability management storage, said traceability link comprising at least a pointer to said first and second surrogates (54, 56), - wherein the computer-implemented method is characterized by said surrogates (54, 56) for storage in said traceability management storage are automatically created by read-only access to an associated development artifact (40, 46), - and wherein said traceability link is automatically created by providing at least one derivation rule for deriving a traceability dependency between development artifacts (40, 46), said derivation rule including instructions to access said attributes stored in said surrogates (54, 56) to identify a traceability dependency between at least two of said development artifacts (40, 46), said derivation rule comprising at least one condition including a relational operator used when accessing one or more values from said first surrogate, optionally combining the values, and comparing the result with values or combined values obtained from said second surrogate to identify said traceability dependency, - applying said derivation rule to automatically identify a traceability dependency, - and storing said traceability link between said surrogates (54, 56) associated with said development artifacts (40, 46) if said traceability dependency is identified.