Impact Analysis

Analyse the blast radius of a change to a requirement, decision, or design document. This is reverse dependency tracing — the complement of forward traceability (/arckit:traceability).

Usage

/arckit:impact <document ID or requirement ID>

Examples

# Impact of changing a requirement
/arckit:impact BR-003
/arckit:impact NFR-SEC-001

# Impact of changing a document
/arckit:impact ARC-001-REQ
/arckit:impact ARC-001-ADR-002

# Show all dependencies for a document type in a project
/arckit:impact ADR --project=001

How It Works

A pre-processing hook builds a dependency graph on invocation:

Scans all ARC-*.md files across all projects
Extracts cross-references between documents (ARC-NNN-TYPE patterns)
Maps requirement IDs to the documents that contain them
Classifies each document's impact severity by type category

The command then performs reverse traversal through the graph to find all downstream dependencies.

Impact Severity

Severity	Category	Document Types	Action
HIGH	Compliance/Governance	TCOP, SECD, DPIA, SVCASS, RISK, TRAC, CONF	Formal re-assessment likely needed
MEDIUM	Architecture	HLDR, DLDR, ADR, DATA, DIAG, PLAT	Design updates may be needed
LOW	Planning/Other	PLAN, ROAD, BKLG, SOBC, OPS, PRES	Review recommended

Traversal Depth

The analysis traces dependencies up to 5 levels deep:

Level 0: The changed document itself
Level 1: Documents that directly reference it
Level 2: Documents that reference Level 1 documents
Level 3-5: Further indirect dependencies

When to Use

Before changing a requirement — understand what other documents will be affected
Before updating an ADR — check if compliance documents reference it
After a design review — trace what else needs updating when conditions are imposed
During change governance — document the full impact chain for approval boards

Relationship to Traceability

Command	Direction	Question
`/arckit:traceability`	Forward	"Are my requirements covered by design decisions?"
`/arckit:impact`	Reverse	"If I change this requirement, what breaks?"

Use traceability to check coverage. Use impact to assess change risk.

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