Tracing Software Architecture Change Using Graph Formalisms in Distributed Systems

In the context of software architecture evolution, understanding the implications of change impact propagation is necessary for various activities including at first the change management. A software evolution implies an implementation of series of change operations to be applied on the software architecture. These operations could be of several types such as substitution of components, adding new components, suppression of subcomponents, change of interface etc. Our contribution aims at providing a model permitting to foresee the impact propagation of any change intended to be applied on a software architecture component. It is also motivated the growing need of companies and organizations for software systems that can be adapted, in a flexible and timely way, to changes occurring in the application domain. This paper presents a graph-based model addressed to help software evolution management to identify the change effect propagation throughout different components of software architecture.