METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR IDENTIFYING INDIRECT MESSAGING RELATIONSHIPS BETWEEN SOFTWARE ENTITIES

A system and method for identifying indirect messaging relationships between software entities. Within a source code repository, all occurrences of calls to interface functions are identified together with communications objects to which these calls pertain. Each interface function call is categorized as either a "send" or a "receive" interface function call. A relationship is identified when a pair of interface function calls are located which pertain to the same communications object and one of the pair has a "send" type and the other of the pair has a "receive" type. By identifying pairs of this type, relationships between hierarchical software entities which contain the interface function calls are also simultaneously identified.