Citation :

Rajeeb Sankar Bal, Jibendu Kumar Mantri, "Structural Analysis and Approach of Software Evolution Process Applying Petri Nets," International Journal of Computer Science and Engineering, vol. 13, no. 4, pp. 12-30, 2026. Crossref, https://doi.org/10.14445/23488387/IJCSE-V13I4P102

Abstract

In software engineering, software evolution is applied after the initial version of the software has been developed. Also, software evolution is based on the enhancement of the software system by adding new functionalities and correcting defects. Since such updates are complex and prone to errors, systematic methods are required to manage software changes successfully. Software process tailoring means reshaping standard organizational processes to light on project-specific needs while still maintaining compliance and needed verification and validation tasks or activities. Applying traditional process designs and standards supports better quality, decreases risks, and reduces rework in the development of software. In this paper, we consider software evolution processes modeled as basic blocks applied to Petri Nets (PNs) and tailored by four important operations: addition, deletion, splitting, and merging to modify workflows. In tailoring the software evolution process, each basic block is studied using control vectors, incidence matrices, and state equations, with reachability analysis ensuring the required process outcomes. The marked graph PNs represent structured concurrency without uncertainty and conflict, and confluence matrices support structural study by identifying competing and convergent execution paths, thereby protecting correctness and consistency of workflow behavior. Structural analysis shows basic blocks with various executions, i.e., sequence block preserves deterministic control flow, concurrency block represents parallel execution, selection block enforces valid choice paths, and iteration block identifies infeasible loops. According to the diagonal elements of the Conflict and Confluence matrices, one guarantees each activity is consistent and deterministic, allowing safe composition of basic blocks. Together, these results confirm that the Petri Net (PN) based application produces sound, reliable, and feasible software evolution processes. Effectively, PNs' basic blocks model in software evolution, and their matrix representations enable systematic analysis. Hence, Software processes can be tailored by main operations: addition, deletion, splitting, and merging, with consistency between highand low-level models maintained to ensure correctness and reliability.

Keywords

Software Development, Software Evolution, Tailoring, Basic Blocks, Petri Nets.

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