Impact analysis tries to assess the impact of changes on the rest of the system: when a certain component changes, which system parts will be affected, and how will they be affected?

A view of an object that focuses on the information relevant to a particular purpose and ignores the remainder of the information [IEEE Std 610.12-1990]

Compilers often construct an abstract syntax tree (AST) for the semantic analysis. Its nodes are programming language constructs and its edges express the hierarchical relation between these construct [..]

Adaptability concerns the alteration of a system to fit the needs of a user without necessarily changing it from one machine to another. [NATO 1970]

Modification of a software product performed after delivery to keep a computer program usable in a changed or changing environment [IEEE Std 1219-1998]

Aspect definitions consist of pointcuts and advices. Advices are the code that crosscuts the dominant decomposition of a software system.

According to Scott W. Ambler, respected authority in the agile methods community, agile software development is an iterative and incremental (evolutionary) approach to software development which is pe [..]

The hypothesis that remains tenable when the null hypothesis is rejected [ISERN]

The phase in the software life-cycle that emphasises on investigation of what the problem is rather than how a solution must be defined.

Term introduced by Lehman and Belady to describe the work done to decrease the complexity of a program without altering the functionality of the system as perceived by users. Anti-regressive work incl [..]