A design oriented approach to software maintenance

The challenge faced by software developers is to establish a manageable relationship between design and implementation in support of change management. The focus of this paper is on the development of an integrated, traceable software development approach that supports change management in the evolution of complex software. The foundation for this approach lies in partitioning the design schemata into a layered architecture of functional components called design units. Design units provide the traceability of requirements throughout the software development process and the framework for a systematic approach to change management.