An Empirical Study on Views of Importance of Change Impact Analysis Issues
| Document type: | Journal Articles |
|---|---|
| Article type: | Original article |
| Peer reviewed: | Yes |
| Author(s): | Per Rovegård, Lefteris Angelis, Claes Wohlin |
| Title: | An Empirical Study on Views of Importance of Change Impact Analysis Issues |
| Journal: | IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering |
| Year: | 2008 |
| Volume: | 34 |
| Issue: | 4 |
| Pagination: | 513-530 |
| ISSN: | 0098-5589 |
| Publisher: | IEEE |
| ISI number: | 000257936500007 |
| Organization: | Blekinge Institute of Technology |
| Department: | School of Engineering - Dept. of Systems and Software Engineering (Sektionen för teknik – avd. för programvarusystem) School of Engineering S- 372 25 Ronneby +46 455 38 50 00 http://www.tek.bth.se/ |
| Language: | English |
| Abstract: | Change impact analysis (IA) is a change management activity that previously has been much studied from a technical perspective. For example, much work focuses on methods for determining the impact of a change. In this paper, we present results from a study on the role of IA in the change management process. In the study, IA issues were prioritized with respect to criticality by software professionals from an organizational perspective and a self-perspective. The software professionals belonged to three organizational levels: operative, tactical, and strategic. Qualitative and statistical analyses with respect to differences between perspectives and levels are presented. The results show that important issues for a particular level are tightly related to how the level is defined. Similarly, issues important from an organizational perspective are more holistic than those important from a self-perspective. However, our data indicate that the self-perspective colors the organizational perspective, meaning that personal opinions and attitudes cannot be easily disregarded. In comparing the perspectives and the levels, we visualize the differences in a way that allows us to discuss two classes of issues: high priority and medium priority. The most important issues from this point of view concern fundamental aspects of IA and its execution. |
| Subject: | Software Engineering\General |
| Keywords: | change impact analysis, organizational level, perspective, prioritization, issues |
