Impact analysis method for changes on object-oriented programs

摘要

Change impact analysis is a method to identify subprograms that are affected by the changes by the user, which have been used on selecting test cases for regression testing. We consider that change impact analysis would be useful for program understanding and maintenance activities as well as regression testing; however, since the definition of the effect varies according to the user's situation, its definition is not unique. Thus, it is difficult for us to apply the existing methods to such activities. In this paper, we propose a change impact analysis method for JAVA programs and implement it. Using our method, the user can easily define the semantics of the effect and we can compute the analysis results based on the defined analysis policy.