Impact Analysis
Priyadarshi Tripathy, Kshirasagar Naik · 2014
This chapter introduces three concepts related to impact analysis: analysis of impacts of changes to the system, ripple effect, and change propagation. The main motivation for performing impact analysis is to minimize unexpected side effects from an intended change to the system. Impact analysis enables understanding and implementing changes in the system. In the process of impact analysis it is important to minimize the differences between actual impact set (AIS) and candidate impact set (CIS), by eliminating false positives and identifying true impacts. The chapter explains two traditional impact analysis techniques. The first technique is based on call graph, whereas the second one is based on dependency graph. The chapter talks about the ripple effect and change propagation model. The link between Lehman's laws of software evolution and measurement of ripple effect is explained.