Programming change scope in software testing

Programming changes come in different sizes and a varying degree of impact on the software functionality.

Size refers to the number of controls on each screen, the number of screens, and the amount of programming logic added.

The impact refers to the effects of the programming change on the other functionalities in the software program.

I use the term scope to combine the term size and impact.

The bigger the programming change translates into longer testing time and resources or a greater extent in software testing.

There are cases when:
1) Small programming change has an enormous impact in many places in the program.
2) Small programming change has either a very isolated or no effect

How do we measure the scope of the programming change?

There are two scenarios:
1) For new functionality, the software testing team reviews the requirements document and determines the number of tests to execute
2) For the existing functionality, the software testing team reviews all possible functionalities where the programming change impact applies.

In both cases, software developers will have a say about the programming change effect.