Software change impact analysis
Before you change a field, a program or a table, see everything it touches: every program, copybook, job, table and screen, on the mainframe and off it. SMART TS XL turns weeks of tracing into a color-coded answer in seconds.
Assess the total impact of changes
Change impact analysis provides a structured approach for looking at a proposed change. It identifies the impacts and consequences of the change, which makes it an important tool for evaluating the magnitude of work in a project and whether there are enough resources to see it through. It also helps identify and manage critical issues that may arise during the project.
Impact analysis is crucial to successfully managing changes to complex applications. Failing to predict the impact of a change can invite unforeseen consequences and derail an IT project, leaving your team high and dry as the deadline looms.
The Software Intelligence® technology in SMART TS XL provides rapid impact analysis through an extensive cross-reference utility, showing a color-coded graphic of how and where programs interact.
Without SMART TS XL
- Tracing a field by hand through hundreds of programs
- Missed references found in production, not in testing
- Estimates that leave out the jobs and tables nobody remembered
- Separate tools for mainframe and distributed code
With SMART TS XL
- Every reference found in seconds, across all platforms
- Exact lines where each reference occurs
- Testing scoped from the real list of affected elements
- Reports to save, export, print and share
The key to complete and easy impact analysis
Color-coded cross-reference diagrams
See how and where programs, jobs, procs, parms, files and tables interact, each type in its own color.
Click and follow hyperlinks
Move from element to element through the hyperlinks that connect them.
See the exact lines
View the specific lines where every reference occurs, in context.
Know what is connected, and where
Identify the areas that need extra attention and testing by mapping dependencies between related modules.
Reports you can share
Create reports that can be saved, exported and printed, with customizable impact report templates.
Impact diagrams and grids
Dynamic impact diagrams, impact analysis graphs and influence grids highlight affected components and their relationships.
How an impact analysis runs
Name the change
A field, program, copybook, table or data set, plus what is changing.
ACCT-NUM 9 → 11 digitsFind every reference
SMART TS XL searches the whole indexed portfolio, every platform at once.
2,039 programs in 0.07 sFollow the ripple
Cross-reference levels show what uses what, upstream and downstream.
Multi-level tree or tableReport and test
Export the impact report and hand testing the exact list.
Save · export · printImpact Analysis, in plain English
Everything on this page also works as a question. Ask ASK AI inside SMART TS XL, or the assistant your team already uses through the MCP Connector. It calls SMART TS XL, reads the indexed code and answers with the source behind every fact. Read-only, under the same permissions your people have.
What breaks if ACCT-NUM goes to 11 digits?
ACCT-NUM is used in 214 programs and 38 copybooks, and reaches 11 DB2 tables and 27 batch jobs. 6 programs move it into a 9-digit field and will truncate.
- 214 programs
- 38 copybooks
- 11 DB2 tables
ILLUSTRATIVE QUESTIONS AND RESULTS
Impact analysis for development, testing and COBOL
Impact analysis in development and testing
By precisely identifying how changes in the code affect other parts of the system, SMART TS XL ensures thorough impact analysis in testing. Teams anticipate potential issues and mitigate risks, which improves software quality, shortens the time to understand the scope of a change, and leads to more efficient testing and quicker releases.
Fewer post-release defects
SMART TS XL integrates with existing development workflows. Developers get more accurate impact analysis and are less likely to overlook areas affected by a change, which means more reliable software, fewer post-release defects and more confidence in every release.
COBOL impact analysis
SMART TS XL is known as an excellent solution for COBOL impact analysis, with precise detection of dependencies and relationships within COBOL codebases. It simplifies the analysis of complex COBOL applications, identifies affected components and highlights potential issues, for faster testing and faster resolution.
Impact reporting and diagrams
Customizable impact report templates give clear visual representations of code dependencies and change impacts. Dynamic impact diagrams, graphs and influence grids make complex structures easy to understand, improving decisions and communication across the team.
Proven on 5.7 billion lines of code
“With the versatility of SMART TS XL I am always able to do a few quick searches and I will instantly have the number of modules, the extent of which these modules use certain data fields, and trace back and flow through information letting me know how certain data flows through our system.”
Questions about impact analysis
How is this different from a text search?
A text search finds strings. SMART TS XL understands the structure of the code, so it follows a field through copybooks, MOVE statements, jobs, procs and tables and shows each reference in context, across platforms.
Can it analyze mainframe and distributed code together?
Yes. COBOL, JCL, DB2, VSAM and CICS on the mainframe, and Java, .NET, SQL and scripts off it, are indexed in one repository, so one impact analysis covers both.
Can my AI assistant run the impact analysis?
Yes. Through the MCP Connector, ChatGPT, Claude, Copilot, Gemini or Grok can run the same searches and cross-reference reports, read-only and under your existing permissions.
See impact analysis on your own code.
In a live session we load a sample of your portfolio and run impact analysis in the web interface and through the AI assistant you already use.
New to SMART TS XL? See how the platform fits together →
