Chapter 13 Impact analysis
Impact analysis is used to evaluate the consequences of changes on objects before performing these changes or before consolidating a list of changes in the repository.
Using the impact analysis report, you can decide to perform a change and you know exactly which impacted objects need to be reviewed. Note that the impact analysis report highlights potential changes: such changes are not implemented from the Impact Analysis dialog box.
PowerDesigner implements the Predictive impact analysis method. This method provides a graph of object dependencies. If you want to change a requirement when design or implementation has already begun, you can use this graph to evaluate the cost of the change and make sure this change will be impacted on already existing implementation. By default, standard dependencies are listed in this graph, you can further define the analysis and drill down the dependencies tree using propagation rules.
All models open in the workspace are displayed in the dependencies graph; if you use the extract dependencies feature you can also visualize dependencies in models closed in the workspace but consolidated in the repository.
When you work in a requirements model you may need to evaluate the impact of a semantic change in a specific requirement. Suppose you modify requirement Food Inventory, you may need to evaluate the impact of such change on the related use cases. The impact analysis feature provides a graph of depending objects that help you better evaluate the consequences of such change.
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