If you have more than one role in your Windows Azure application, and you decide to update only one role you sure can do that. To do that you will still need to build your full Azure application (included all role) and then only update the specific role via Windows Azure Portal. Here is what you would do:
Keep in mind that the package you provide during “Upgrade” process, will still include all roles, but only one role will be touched which was selected during upgrade process.