Change Impact Analysis of Object-oriented Software

软件系统随着时间的推移而发展，以适应环境的变化。优美的软件进化要求只发生预期的功能变化；虽然这是可取的，但很难实现。通过向程序员报告变更影响信息，允许检查代码编辑的效果，需要软件工具来自动化包含异构组件的复杂软件系统的演变。对变更影响分析的工具支持具有明显的潜力，可以提高程序员的工作效率，并支持安全的代码增强。变更影响分析的研究假设一个面向对象的系统是用一套测试开发的，在系统更新时运行以检查变更的安全性。分析可以确定哪些测试受到了影响，哪些更改影响了每个测试。由于这些测试经常执行独立的功能，因此受影响的测试对应于那些可能已被更改的功能。本研究将开发一个Java变更影响分析的交互式工具，作为工业强度编程环境的一部分，以确保实用性。该工具将允许对更改和程序表示的粒度进行实验，分析的增量化，Java基准套件的收集，以及协作软件开发的应用程序。

Software systems evolve over time in order to adapt to changes inenvironment. Graceful software evolution requires that only expectedchanges in functionality occur; while desirable, this is difficult toachieve. Software tools are needed to automate the evolution ofcomplex software systems containing heterogeneous components, byreporting change impact information to programmers, allowingexamination of the effects of code edits. Tool support for changeimpact analysis has a clear potential to boost programmer productivityand enable safe code enhancement.This research in change impact analysis assumes that anobject-oriented system is developed with a suite of tests, run as thesystem is updated to check the safety of changes. Analyses candetermine which tests are affected and which changes affect each ofthese tests. Since these tests often exercise independentfunctionalities, the tests affected correspond to thosefunctionalities that may have been altered. This research will developan interactive tool for change impact analysis of Java, as part of aindustrial-strength programming environment to ensure practicality.The tool will allow experimentation with the granularity of changesand program representations, incrementalization of the analyses,collection of a Java benchmark suite, and application to collaborativesoftware development.