A Two-folded Impact Analysis of Schema Changes on Database Applications

Database applications are becoming increasingly popular, mainly due to the advanced data management facilities that the underlying database management system offers compared against traditional legacy software applications. The interaction, however, of such applications with the database system introduces a number of issues, among which, this paper addresses the impact analysis of the changes performed at the database schema level. Our motivation is to provide the software engineers of database applications with automated methods that facilitate major maintenance tasks, such as source code corrections and regression testing, which should be triggered by the occurrence of such changes. The presented impact analysis is thus two-folded: the impact is analysed in terms of both the affected source code statements and the affected test suites concerning the testing of these applications. To achieve the former objective, a program slicing technique is employed, which is based on an extended version of the program dependency graph. The latter objective requires the analysis of test suites generated for database applications, which is accomplished by employing testing techniques tailored for this type of applications. Utilising both the slicing and the testing techniques enhances program comprehension of database applications, while also supporting the development of a number of practical metrics regarding their maintainability against schema changes. To evaluate the feasibility and effectiveness of the presented techniques and metrics, a software tool, called DATA, has been implemented. The experimental results from its usage on the TPC-C case study are reported and analysed.