Klaus Schmid
Rick Rabiser
Paul Grünbacher
ABSTRACT
It has been shown that product line engineering can significantly improve the productivity, quality and time-to-market of software development by leveraging extensive reuse. Variability models are currently the most advanced approach to define, document and manage the commonalities and variabilities of reusable artifacts such as software components, requirements, test cases, etc. These models provide the basis for automating the derivation of new products and are thus the key artifact to leverage the flexibility and adaptability of systems in a product line. Among the existing approaches to variability modeling feature modeling and decision modeling have gained most importance. A significant amount of research exists on comparing and analyzing different feature modeling approaches. However, despite their significant role in product line research and practical applications, only little effort has been devoted to compare and analyze decision modeling approaches. In order to address this shortcoming and to provide a basis for more structured research on decision modeling in the future, we present a comparative analysis of representative approaches. We identify their major modeling concepts and present an analysis of their commonalities and variabilities.
- C. Atkinson, J. Bayer, C. Bunse, E. Kamsties, O. Laitenberger, R. Laqua, D. Muthig, B. Paech, J. Wüst, and J. Zettel, Component-Based Product Line Engineering with UML: Addison-Wesley, 2002. Google Scholar
Digital Library
- C. Atkinson, J. Bayer, and D. Muthig, "Component-Based Product Line Development: The KobrA Approach," Proc. of the First Software Product Line Conference (SPLC-1), Denver, CO, USA, Kluwer Academic Publishers, 2000, pp. 289--309. Google ScholarDigital Library
- T. Berger, S. She, R. Lotufo, A. Wasowski, and K. Czarnecki, "Variability Modeling in the Real: A Perspective from the Operating Systems Domain," Proc. of the 25th IEEE/ACM International Conference on Automated Software Engineering, Antwerp, Belgium, ACM, 2010, pp. 73--82. Google ScholarDigital Library
- D. Benavides, S. Segura, and A. Ruiz-Cortés, "Automated analysis of feature models 20 years later," Information Systems, vol. 35(6), pp. 615--636, 2010. Google ScholarDigital Library
- D. Benavides, S. Segura, P. Trinidad, and A. Ruiz-Cortes, "A Framework for the Automated Analysis of Feature Models," Proc. of the First International Workshop on Variability Modelling of Software-intensive Systems (VaMoS 2007), Limerick, Ireland, Lero Technical Report 2007-01, 2007, pp. 129--134.Google Scholar
- L. Chen, M. A. Babar, and N. Ali, "Variability Management in Software Product Lines: A Systematic Review," Proc. of the 13th International Software Product Line Conference (SPLC 2009), San Francisco, CA, USA, Software Engineering Institute, Carnegie Mellon, 2009, pp. 81--90. Google ScholarDigital Library
- A. Classen, P. Heymans, and P.-Y. Schobbens, "What's in a Feature: A Requirements Engineering Perspective," Proc. of the Fundamental Approaches to Software Engineering (FASE), Budapest, Hungary, Springer, 2008, pp. 16--30. Google ScholarDigital Library
- P. Clements and L. Northrop, Software Product Lines: Practices and Patterns: SEI Series in Software Engineering, Addison-Wesley, 2001. Google ScholarDigital Library
- D. Dhungana, P. Grünbacher, R. Rabiser, and T. Neumayer, "Structuring the Modeling Space and Supporting Evolution in Software Product Line Engineering," Journal of Systems and Software, vol. 83(7), pp. 1108--1122, 2010. Google ScholarDigital Library
- D. Dhungana, P. Grünbacher, and R. Rabiser, "The DOPLER Meta-Tool for Decision-Oriented Variability Modeling: A Multiple Case Study," Automated Software Engineering, 2010 (in press; doi: 10.1007/s10515-010-0076-6). Google ScholarCross Ref
- T. Forster, D. Muthig, and D. Pech, "Understanding Decision Models -- Visualization and Complexity reduction of Software Variability," Proc. of the Second International Workshop on Variability Modelling of Software-Intensive Systems (VaMoS 2008), Essen, Germany, ICB Research Report, 2008, pp. 111--119.Google Scholar
- European Software Institute Spain and IKV++ Technologies AG Germany, "MASTER: Model-driven Architecture inSTrumentation, Enhancement and Refinement," IST-2001-34600, MASTER-2002-D1.1-V1-PUBLIC 2002.Google Scholar
- H. Gomaa, Designing Software Product Lines with UML: Addison-Wesley, 2005. Google ScholarDigital Library
- Ø. Haugen, B. Møller-Pedersen, J. Oldevik, G. Olsen, and A. Svendsen, "Adding Standardized Variability to Domain Specific Languages," Proc. of the 12th International Software Product Line Conference (SPLC 2008), Limerick, Ireland, IEEE CS, 2008, pp. 139--148. Google ScholarDigital Library
- F. Heidenreich, J. Kopcsek, and C. Wende, "FeatureMapper: mapping features to models," Proc. of the 30th International Conference on Software Engineering (ICSE'08), Leipzig, Germany, ACM, 2008, pp. 943--944. Google ScholarDigital Library
- K. C. Kang, S. Cohen, J. Hess, W. Nowak, and S. Peterson, "Feature-oriented domain analysis (FODA) feasibility study," Technical Report CMU/SEI-90TR-21, Software Engineering Institute, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA, USA 1990.Google Scholar
- J. X. Mansell and D. Sellier, "Decision Model and Flexible Component Definition Based on XML Technology," Proc. of the 5th International Workshop on Software Product-Family Engineering (PFE 2003), Siena, Italy, Springer Berlin Heidelberg, 2003, pp. 466--472.Google Scholar
- D. Muthig, A Light-Weight Approach Facilitating an Evolutionary Transition Towards Software Product Lines: PhD thesis, University of Kaiserslautern, IRB Verlag, 2002.Google Scholar
- K. Pohl, G. Böckle, and F. van der Linden, Software Product Line Engineering: Foundations, Principles, and Techniques: Springer, 2005. Google ScholarDigital Library
- R. Rabiser, P. Grünbacher, and D. Dhungana, "Supporting Product Derivation by Adapting and Augmenting Variability Models, "Proc. of the 11th International Software Product Line Conference (SPLC 2007), Kyoto, Japan, IEEE CS, 2007, pp. 141--150. Google ScholarDigital Library
- R. Rabiser, D. Dhungana, W. Heider, and P. Grünbacher, "Flexibility and End-User Support in Model-based Product Line Tools," Proc. of the 35th EUROMICRO Converence on Software Engineering and Advanced Applications (SEAA) 2009, Patras, Greece, IEEE CS, 2009, pp. 508--511. Google ScholarDigital Library
- M. Sinnema and S. Deelstra, "Classifying variability modeling techniques," Information and Software Technology, vol. 49(7), pp. 717--739, 2006. Google ScholarDigital Library
- K. Schmid, U. Becker-Kornstaedt, P. Knauber, and F. Bernauer, "Introducing a software modeling concept in a medium-sized company," Proc. of the 22nd International Conference on Software Engineering (ICSE 2000), Limerick, Ireland, ACM, 2000, pp. 558--567. Google ScholarDigital Library
- K. Schmid and H. Eichelberger, "Model-Based Implementation of Meta-Variability Constructs: A Case Study using Aspects," Proc. of the Second International Workshop on Variability Modelling of Software-intensive Systems (VaMoS 2008), Essen, Germany, ICB Research Report, 2008, pp. 63--71.Google Scholar
- K. Schmid and I. John, "A Customizable Approach to Full-Life Cycle Variability Management," Journal of the Science of Computer Programming, Special Issue on Variability Management, vol. 53(3), pp. 259--284, 2004. Google ScholarDigital Library
- K. Schmid, I. John, R. Kolb, and G. Meier, "Introducing the PuLSE Approach to an Embedded System Population at Testo AG," Proc. of the 27th International Conference on Software Engineering (ICSE'05), St. Louis, MO, USA ACM, 2005, pp. 544--552. Google ScholarDigital Library
- K. Schmid, K. Krennrich, and M. Eisenbarth, "Requirements Management for Product Lines: Extending Professional Tools," Proc. of the 10th International Software Product Line Conference (SPLC 2006), Baltimore, MD, USA, IEEE CS, pp. 113--122. Google ScholarDigital Library
- P.-Y. Schobbens, P. Heymans, J.-C. Trigaux, and Y. Bontemps, "Feature Diagrams: A Survey and a Formal Semantics," Proc. of the 14th IEEE International Requirements Engineering Conference (RE'06), Minneapolis, MN, USA, IEEE CS, 2006, pp. 139--148. Google ScholarDigital Library
- Software Productivity Consortium Services Corporation, "Reuse-Driven Software Processes," Technical Report SPC-92019-CMC, Version 02.00.03, November 1993.Google Scholar
- F. van der Linden, K. Schmid, and E. Rommes, Software Product Lines in Action - The Best Industrial Practice in Product Line Engineering: Springer Berlin Heidelberg, 2007. Google ScholarDigital Library
- M. Vierhauser, P. Grünbacher, A. Egyed, R. Rabiser, and W. Heider, "Flexible and Scalable Consistency Checking on Product Line Variability Models," Proc. of the 25th IEEE/ACM International Conference on Automated Software Engineering (ASE 2010), Antwerp, Belgium, ACM, 2010, pp. 63--72. Google ScholarDigital Library
- D. Weiss and C. T. R. Lai, Software Product-Line Engineering: A Family-Based Software Development Process: Addison Wesley Professional, 1999. Google ScholarDigital Library
- D. Weiss, J. J. Li, H. Slye, and H. Sun, "Decision-Model-Based Code Generation for SPLE," Proc. of the 12th International Software Product Line Conference (SPLC 2008), Limerick, Ireland, IEEE CS, 2008, pp. 129--138. Google ScholarDigital Library
Index Terms
- A comparison of decision modeling approaches in product lines
Recommendations
TRAVART: An Approach for Transforming Variability Models
VaMoS '21: Proceedings of the 15th International Working Conference on Variability Modelling of Software-Intensive SystemsA large number of variability modeling approaches have been developed including feature modeling, decision modeling, and Orthogonal Variability Modeling (OVM). Multiple variants of each approach have been developed, i.e., there are many different types ...
Cool features and tough decisions: a comparison of variability modeling approaches
VaMoS '12: Proceedings of the 6th International Workshop on Variability Modeling of Software-Intensive SystemsVariability modeling is essential for defining and managing the commonalities and variabilities in software product lines. Numerous variability modeling approaches exist today to support domain and application engineering activities. Most are based on ...
Variability Modeling for Service Oriented Product Line Architectures
SPLC '11: Proceedings of the 2011 15th International Software Product Line ConferenceService Oriented Architecture (SOA) has emerged as a model for distributed computing that promotes flexible deployment and reuse. Software product lines (SPL) promote reusable development for product families. SOA systems need the capability of managing ...
Comments