Visualizing the impact of changes in software code

Although software projects continue to grow larger in size and complexity, the typical methods for debugging these projects have not changed much over the past decade. Software is more modular, with code reuse becoming very common. This can lead to bugs manifesting themselves in one or more sections of code, but originating in a completely different area. This thesis focuses on the development and study of ImpactViz, a novel debugging tool that considers the object oriented nature of modern software languages such as Java, and uses visualization techniques to aid in identifying the potential origins of software bugs. Results from a laboratory evaluation help show that participants find the new program ImpactViz to be both useful and easy to use. The field trials performed have also helped define the benefits and limitations of using ImpactViz in certain situations