Paths and matrices of propagation

Because of growing market requirements, software systems have become complexer than ever. Recently, component-based software engineering has been presented as a solution to face to this problem. A well defined component model makes component based software systems robust and long-lasting. Nevertheless, due to their complexity, those systems are still difficult to maintain or evolve. Indeed, the impact of a modification grows proportionally with the complexity of the system. In this paper, paths of propagation and the concept of matrix of propagation will be introduced as a technique to trace the impact of required modifications on the system. More precisely, it guides the engineer by tracing the impact of a given modification of a component on other components of the system.