Identifying Classes of Data Items with Change Analyzer

Change Analyzer identifies the class of data items used to perform a business function in a legacy application. Amongst other uses, it lets you answer the kind of “What if?” questions posed in the past by industry-wide changes for Y2K, Zip+4, and the Euro dollar: “What if I change the type of this variable, or the length of this field? What other fields in the class will I also have to change?”

For each field in the class, you can use Change Analyzer to perform an impact trace that shows the flow of data to the field, and to detect and resolve program ports. You can generate reports showing source entities that might require modification, lines of affected code, and the like.

Note: Projects must have been verified with the Enable Data Element Flow option set (see Setting Project Verification Options).

The project options on the Impact > Relationships tab of the Project Options window control the relationships detected during synonym and impact trace processing.