Change Impact Analysis of Object-oriented Software

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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.