Mapping the potential change impact in object-oriented software
Mívian Ferreira, Kecia A. M. Ferreira, Humberto T. Marques-Neto · 2015
The present work brings the results of a study carried out to investigate the change propagation impact in object-oriented programs. We have performed this analysis by considering a macroscopic topology of object-oriented program called Little House. According to this topology, the dependence graph of classes can be partitioned into six components, namely: In, LSCC, Out, Tendrils, Tubes, and Disconnected. We analyzed the data of 12 open source Java projects, in a total of 54 versions of them. The results of our study suggest that LSCC and Out concentrate the classes with the far highest potential change impact. We have also observed that this characteristic remains during the software evolution.