Chetna Gupta

A Dynamic Approach to Estimate Change Impact using Type of Change Propagation

Abstract —Software evolution is an ongoing process carried out with the aim of extending base applications either for adding new functionalities or for adapting software to changing environments. This brings about the need for estimating and determining the overall impact of changes to a software system. In the last few decades many such change/impact analysis techniques have been developed to identify consequences of making changes to software systems. In this paper we propose a new approach of estimating change/impact analysis by classifying change based on type of change classification e.g. (a) nature and (b) extent of change propagation. The impact set produced consists of two dimensions of information: (a) statements affected by change propagation and (b) percentage i.e. statements affected in each category and involving the overall system. We also propose an algorithm for classifying the type of change. To establish confidence in effectiveness and efficiency we illustrate this technique with the help of an example. Results of our analysis are promising towards achieving the aim of the proposed endeavor to enhance change classification. The proposed dynamic technique for estimating impact sets and their percentage of impact will help software maintainers in performing selective regression testing by analyzing impact sets regarding the nature of change and change dependency.

Dependency based Process Model for Impact Analysis: A Requirement Engineering Perspective

Changing requirements of customer needs establishes the need to analyze impact of requirement changes. For success of any software requirement analysis is very essential. In this paper, we propose a four stage method engineering process which aims at estimating impact of change. The process model described is a linear layered model. Impact sets are computed by analyzing dependency tractability relations with other connected method components. The results produced provide two type of information (a) added, deleted, modified methods (b) depth (extent) of impact on the system. General Terms Change impact analysis, software maintenance, software testing.

DU-Regs: Online Dynamic Approach to Visualize Impact Analysis for Regression Testing

Software evolution is an ongoing process carried out by software maintainer’s in order to meet the increasing demand, pressure and requirements for extending base applications for adding new functionalities, for fixing bugs or for adapting software to the changing environments. As a result, it establishes the need for estimating and determining the impact of changes on the overall software system. Impact Analysis is a way to estimate the impact of such changes either before or after the change is made. In the last few decades many such techniques and tools (both static and dynamic) have been proposed. In this paper we propose a new online dynamic impact analysis technique called Definition Usage-Regression Test Selection (DU-Regs), which collects impact traces completely online i.e. during execution. It works at statement level rather than on method level to capture more precise impact sets and at the same time, provides the support for impact visualization for regression testing.

Complexity Estimation Approach for Debugging in Parallel

Multiple faults in a software many times prevent debuggers from efficiently localizing a fault. This is mainly due to not knowing the exact number of faults in a failing program as some of the faults get obfuscated. Many techniques have been proposed to isolate different faults in a program thereby creating separate sets of failing program statements. To evenly divide these statements amongst debuggers we must know the level of work required to debug that slice. In this paper we propose a new technique to calculate the complexity of faulty program slices to efficiently distribute the work among debuggers for simultaneous debugging. The technique calculates the complexity of entire slice by taking into account the suspiciousness of every faulty statement. To establish the confidence in effectiveness and efficiency of proposed techniques we illustrate the whole idea with help of an example. Results of analysis indicate the technique will be helpful (a) for efficient distribution of work among debuggers (b) will allow simultaneous debugging of different faulty program slices (c) will help minimize the time and manual labor.

α -(4 -Nitro Phenoxy) Chalcones As Synthons for Cis-(±)-1,5-Benzothiazepines

Abstract α-(4 -Nitro Phenoxy) chalcones, V have been utilized as intermediate for the synthesis of some new cis- (±) -2-aryl-3-(4-nitro phenoxy)-4-phenyl-l,5-benzothiazepine VI by cycloconden-sation of 2-amino thiophenol in the presence of mild base.

Software change impact analysis: an approach to differentiate type of change to minimise regression test selection

Software evolution is a continuous process carried out with the aim of extending base applications either for adding new functionalities or for adapting software to the changing environment. This paper proposes a new approach of estimating impact analysis by allocating tokens to the changes encountered in the two versions of the software system. An algorithm is proposed for token allocation and for determining matches which take into account a minimum threshold value to predict the matched results. To establish confidence in effectiveness and efficiency, presented technique is illustrated with the help of an example and the results of analysis are promising towards achieving the aim of the proposed endeavour. Further, a performance-based comparison between existing techniques is also provided in support of this research. The impact set produced will be more precise than other techniques and this data can then be used by a software engineer in determining the changes made to the software system. Thus, the proposed technique can help software engineer to perform selective regression testing by optimising the number of test cases.

Software Change Impact Analysis: An Approach to Compute and Prioritize Impacted Functions in Software Systems

This paper presents an approach to prioritize program segments within the impact set computed using functional call graph to assist regression testing for test case prioritization. The presented technique will first categorize the type of impact propagation and then prioritize the impacted segments into higher and lower levels based on propagation categorization. This will help in saving maintenance cost and effort by allocating higher priority to those segments which are impacted more within the impacted set. Thus a software engineer can first run those test cases which cover segments with higher impacted priority to minimize regression test selection.

Current prioritisation and reprioritisation practices: a case study approach

Prioritisation and reprioritisation consider both requirements as well as decision aspects for creating the implementation ordering in the incremental delivery of evolving software. These activities determine the success of a software product and hence the survivability of the developing organisation in the markets. The practices of the organisations involved in mass market developments need to be analysed to provide the basis for the research focused on providing solution strategies with the aim to incorporate the missing activities and overall improvement of the development process. This paper addresses the findings acquired after the conduct of interviews with the representatives of few software developing firms in the field of web, mobile and desktop applications. The findings suggest that the customer and developer centric effortful activities related to prioritisation and reprioritisation are missing from the practices of the organisations. Organisations believe regression testing to be an expensive activity and in the absence of the developer, it will be very difficult to perform impact analysis during regression testing, as the documentations are outdated and complete development knowledge resides in the brain of the developer.

Improvisation of Reusability Oriented Software Testing

The study involves the factors that are responsible for software testing and determining the extent of reusability on the basis of test outcomes. It deals with improving and promoting practices of reusability along with providing a method to improve such practices. A case study was conducted in some of the leading organizations related to reusability practices involved in developing a new software keeping in consideration the test cases generated. According to the results, the factors that emphasize the software testing process are majorly cost and time that play an efficient role in the development of software. It is also necessary to focus on test process definition, testing automation along with the testing tools.

Toward Analysis of Requirement Prioritization Based Regression Testing Techniques

The regression testing aims to validate the quality of successive software versions along with the validation of the existing functionality. The new functionality, change requests, and implementation of delayed requirements lead to the change in the source code, and it might be possible that existing functionality may malfunction as a result of such changes. Various regression testing approaches are proposed in the literature, and this paper tries to analyze the state of the art of requirement priority based regression testing approaches. Few requirement-based approaches are identified from the literature and were analyzed for their differences in functionality and other parameters that determine their applicability for doing regression testing. The results indicate that the existing techniques employ different parameters (with requirement priority as one of the parameters) and need validation on large dataset, and the applicability of particular technique as per circumstances is still uncertain. There is lack of consensus that helps the software tester to decide which technique is better as per existing scenarios.