A model for change propagation based on graph rewriting

This paper presents a model of change propagation during software maintenance and evolution. Change propagation is modeled as a sequence of snapshots, where each snapshot represents one particular moment in the process, with some software dependencies being consistent and others being inconsistent. A snapshot is changed into the next one by a change in one software entity and the dependencies related to it. The formalism for this process is based on graph rewriting. The paper discusses two basic processes of change propagation: change-and-fix, and top-down propagation. It also describes a prototype tool “Ripples 2” which supports both processes, and an example of the use of the tool