Impact analysis

Overview of the Objecteering Scope Manager impact analysis tool

Objecteering Scope Manager provides a powerful impact analysis tool that provides you with critical information on the impact that any change to any Objecteering Scope Manager element or any NameSpace will have on the rest of the model. It lists all the elements that are related to and therefore potentially impacted by any change in an Objecteering Scope Manager element or a NameSpace.

You, the user, can choose between three display modes in the impact analysis tool:

· Impacted elements are displayed by element.

· Impacted elements are displayed by depth level. In this display mode, the depth level (from 1 to 5) can be defined.

· Impacted elements are displayed by metaclass. In this display mode, the depth level (from 1 to 5) can be defined.

The depth level tells the impact analysis tool how far down the relationship tree it should go when presenting the results:

· If the selected depth level is 1, the tool will only show elements directly related to the analyzed element.

· If the selected depth level is 2 then the tool will show the elements directly related to the selected element and all the other elements directly related to the elements on level 1.

In the top part of the impact analysis window, the element from which the command was run is displayed. This element is selected by clicking on the icon.

In the lower part of the impact analysis window, the reasons for which the selected element impacts the element from which the command was run are displayed.

For depth level or metaclass display, these reasons are only displayed if the element is directly impacted.

For display by metaclass, the depth level is mentioned between brackets after the name of the element.

The button is used to launch a new impact analysis on the selected element.

The button is used to select in the explorer the element which is selected in the results zone.

If the "Tree" mode has not been selected, you can select the element in the explorer by double-clicking on it in the results zone.

Example

Let’s have a look at the following diagram that presents the relationship between the "Develop Related Feature" requirement and the rest of the project elements.

The requirement diagram presenting the relationship between the "Develop Related Feature" requirement and the rest of the model

At some point the "Develop Related Feature" requirement might need to be changed, raising the question of the impact that a change to this requirement would have on the rest of the project elements.

To answer this question, all you have to do is start the impact analysis tool, by right-clicking on the requirement in question and running the "Scope Manager/Analyze the impact" command from the context menu. The impact analysis window (shown below) then appears.

The "Impact analysis report" window

The screenshot below also illustrates information display by metaclass.

If the selected depth level is set to 2, then the impact analysis tool will show both the elements directly related to the selected element and also all other elements directly related to the elements on level 1, as shown in the following screenshot.

The "Impact analysis report" window depth level is set to 2 here, and shows impacted elements by metaclass

You can also choose to see the impacted elements by level, as shown below.

The "Impact analysis report" window showing impacted elements by depth level