Automation support for concurrent software engineering

Abstract

This paper presents an evolution control system that provide automated assistance for the software evolution process in an uncertain environment where designer tasks and their properties are always changing. We view an Evolution Control System (ECS) as the agent that keeps track of proposed, ongoing, and completed changes to a software system. It provides automated assistance to the software evolution manager to help him/her make the right decisions. It automatically propagates change consequences by constructing the set of possibly affected modules. It also coordinates change implementation activities within the design team in a way that supports teamwork and maintains system integrity, as well as adapting itself to the dynamic nature of the evolution process where new changes arrive randomly and ongoing modifications are themselves subject to change as more information becomes available.