Consistency management in a process environment

Software inconsistency is primarily caused by changes. Changing a software product may cause other products to change. Moreover, changing a part of product (sub-product) usually causes other parts to change too. This paper covers software consistency management supports of advanced process environment research (Aper) by (1) decomposing software products into sub-products and establishing relationships among products and sub-products, and (2) defining trigger processes and consistency conditions in relationships. When a (sub-)product is changed, relationships can be traced to identify the affected ones. Trigger processes then dictate developers to handle the affected ones, which normally need to change accordingly. Meanwhile, consistency conditions should be kept among (sub-)products. Violation of the conditions will result in exceptions, which require handling by developers. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science Inc. All rights reserved.