Improving Component-Based WebGIS Development by Adopting a Software Product Line Approach

Development of Web-based Geographical Information Systems (WebGIS) is mainly done by Small Enterprises which usually employ Open Source Software (OSS) components. The number and complexity of requirements for these Information Systems has exploded during the last years due to the technological advances. In addition, enterprises working on WebGIS must carry out intensive software development within short time frames. This situation is claiming for an improvement of their software development processes so that both the time to market and costs can be reduced. In this paper, we present the situation of a research-in-progress performed by one of these SMEs working on WebGIS. Software Product Line approach has emerged as a promising solution to face the problems due to the situation in the WebGIS domain. We have also detected that modeling tools can help WebGIS developers to reduce the time to market and cost of their developments and, at the same time, offer a quality warranty and more robust ISs. We have started a Software Process Improvement and its first steps have been taken whose results are presented here.