What is "jripples"

JRipples is a change impact analysis tool for the Java programming language. It helps a developer calculate the impact of software change. It is an open source Eclipse plug-in. The tool not only give relevant program analysis, but it also organizes the steps of change propagation.

When a change is made to software, the change will quite often have an undesirable or unintended impact on the software as a whole. During a change, JRipples can be run to assist the developer in identifying the impact of the change. This tool analyzes a program and marks classes which need attention from the developer. The developer will then visit each marked class and decide if the impact requires refactoring or not. This frees the developer from trivial duties, so they can be more effective.