Enabling domain experts to participate in the process of improving software quality using change impact analysis

Master thesis (2021)

Authors

J.P.T. Nederveen Electrical Engineering, Mathematics and Computer Science

Contributors

S. Proksch Software Engineering - EEMCS (mentor)
V. van de Kamp Exact Software (mentor)
A.E. Zaidman Software Engineering - EEMCS (graduation committee member)
T. Höllt Computer Graphics and Visualisation - EEMCS (graduation committee member)
Faculty
Electrical Engineering, Mathematics and Computer Science, Electrical Engineering, Mathematics and Computer Science
Copyright: © 2021 Tim Nederveen
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Published Date

25-08-2021

Language

English

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Faculty

Electrical Engineering, Mathematics and Computer Science

Abstract

Software engineers often lack the domain knowledge needed to validate context specific parts of software. Domain experts do have this knowledge needed to validate the software, but often lack the expertise and tools to apply this knowledge in a way that tests the software product. Based on a case study at business-software company Exact, this study proposes a method of change impact analysis to help domain experts comprehend the structure of the system and allow them to take part in the code review process by assessing whether the impact of a change is as expected. Evaluation of a developed proof of concept at Exact using common-scenarios and a user evaluation shows that the method is effective in providing insights about the impact of changes to domain experts which provides a good intuition that using change impact analysis can aid domain experts to be involved in the process of improving software quality.