Quantitative Functional Change Impact Analysis in Activity Diagrams: A COSMIC-Based Approach

Abstract

Change requests are inevitable in every phase of the Software Development Life Cycle (SDLC), and responding to a change request without jeopardizing the project success remains a challenge for software developers/managers. Expressing functional changes in terms of COSMIC Function Point units can be helpful in identifying changes leading to a potential impact on the software functional size; this latter can be used as a means to plan the project activities. This paper proposes to analyze the impact of functional changes on the size of UML activity diagrams, one artifact type produced early in the SDLC. The proposed analysis handles directly as well as indirectly affected elements in both modelling levels of the activity diagrams.

Appendix A

As proposed in our previous work [18], the FS(UML-AD) is computed as follows:

$$ FS\,\,(UML - AD\,)\,\,\, = \,\,\sum\limits_{i = 1}^{n} {FS\,\,(A_{i} )} $$

(1)

Where:

• n: the number of activities in the activity diagram UML-AD (functional level).

• FS(A _i ): the functional size of the activity A_i in UML-AD (dynamic level).

To measure the functional size of an activity Ai, we use formula (2) [18].

$$ FS(A_{i} )\,\, = \,\,FScond\,\,(Pcond\,\,A_{i} )\, + \,\sum\limits_{j = 1}^{m} {FS(act_{ij} )} $$

(2)

Where:

• FS(Ai): the FS of the activity Ai ($1 \le i \le n$)

• m: the number of actions detailing the activity Ai (dynamic level).

• FS(actij): the FS of an action actij (dynamic level).

• FScond(Pcond Ai): the FS of the pre-condition of Ai. (1CFP if it exists).

To measure the FS of an action (actii), we use formula (3) [18].

$$ FS(act_{ij} )\,\, = \,\,FScond\,\,\,\,(Pcond\,\,\,act_{ij} )\, + \,FSparam\,\,\,\,(Param\,\,\,act_{ij} ) $$

(3)

Where:

• FScond(Pcond act _ij ): the FS of the pre-condition of act_ii (1 CFP if it exists).

• FSparam(Param act _ij ) = 1 CFP if act_ij includes input or output parameters).

To measure the functional size of a guard condition, we use formula (4) [18].

$$ FScond\,\;(\,CondGuard\,\,)\; = \left\{ \begin{aligned} 1\;CFP\quad if\,act_{ij} \,has\,\,a\,guard\,\,condition \hfill \\ 0\quad \quad \;\;\;otherwise.\quad \quad \hfill \\ \end{aligned} \right. $$

(4)