Authors : Suhaimi Ibrahim , Malcolm Munro and Aziz Deraman
Abstract: It is ineviTable that a software undergoes some change in its lifetime. With some change requests comes a need to estimate the scope (e.g. size and complexity) of the proposed changes and plan for their implementation. Software traceability and its subsequent impact analysis help relate the consequences or ripple-effects of a proposed change across different levels of software models. In this study, we present a software traceability approach to support change impact analysis of object oriented software. The significant contribution in our traceability approach can be observed in its ability to integrate the high level with the low level software models that involve the requirements, test cases, design and code. Our approach allows a direct link between a component at one level to other components of different levels. It supports the top down and bottom up traceability in response to tracing for the potential effects. We developed a software prototype called Catia to support C++ software, applied it to a case study of an embedded system and discuss the results.
Suhaimi Ibrahim , Malcolm Munro and Aziz Deraman , 2005. A Requirements Traceability to Support Change Impact Analysis . Asian Journal of Information Technology, 4: 335-344.