Change impact analysis

This article is written like a personal reflection, personal essay, or argumentative essay that states a Wikipedia editor's personal feelings or presents an original argument about a topic. Please help improve it by rewriting it in an encyclopedic style. (January 2022) (Learn how and when to remove this message)

This article may be confusing or unclear to readers. Please help clarify the article. There might be a discussion about this on the talk page. (January 2022) (Learn how and when to remove this message)

Change impact analysis (IA) or impact analysis^[1] is the analysis of changes within a deployed product or application and their potential consequences.^{[2][3][better source needed]}

Change impact analysis is defined by Bohnner and Arnold^[4] as "identifying the potential consequences of a change, or estimating what needs to be modified to accomplish a change", and they focus on IA in terms of scoping changes within the details of a design. In contrast, Pfleeger and Atlee^[5] focus on the risks associated with changes and state that IA is: "the evaluation of the many risks associated with the change, including estimates of the effects on resources, effort, and schedule". Both the design details and risks associated with modifications are critical to performing IA within the change management processes. A technical colloquial term is also mentioned sometimes in this context, dependency hell.