Software Merge: Combining Changes to Decompositions

Abstract

Computer aid for software evolution is needed for more effective software development, particularly in contexts where changes to large systems must be made rapidly. This paper addresses computer aid for the evolution of requirements models and high level software designs. We present an improved method for automatically merging changes to software designs expressed via annotated dataflow diagrams and hierarchical decomposition. This improvement addresses the structure of the design as well as the system behavior the design implies. We also present an improved method for automatically reporting and repairing conflicts between structural changes. These methods can be applied to the informal dataflow diagrams commonly used in requirements modeling and software design as well as to the more specific executable design representation used in the computer aided prototyping system CAPS.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Jan 01, 1996
Accession Number
ADA325354

Entities

People

  • David A. Dampier
  • Valdis A. Berzins

Organizations

  • Naval Postgraduate School

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Materials and Manufacturing Processes
  • Weapons Technologies

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Abstracts
  • Computer Programming
  • Computer Science
  • Computers
  • Customer Services
  • Decomposition
  • Engineering
  • High Level Languages
  • Language
  • Military Research
  • Personal Information Managers
  • Product Prototyping
  • Programming Languages
  • Prototypes
  • Software Design
  • Software Development
  • Software Prototyping

Fields of Study

  • Computer science
  • Engineering

Readers

  • Software Engineering.
  • Systems Analysis and Design