A Requirements-Based Taxonomy of Software Product Line Evolution

Software product lines are, by their very nature, complex software systems. Due to the interconnectedness of the various products in the product line any form of evolution becomes significantly more complex than in a single system situation. So far most work on product line evolution has focused on specific approaches to supporting special cases of the evolution problem. In this paper, we take a different approach and provide a broad taxonomy of requirements-driven evolution in software product lines. This serves as a basis for the identification of requirements on evolution support

The KB paradigm and its application to interactive configuration

The knowledge base paradigm aims to express domain knowledge in a rich formal language, and to use this domain knowledge as a knowledge base to solve various problems and tasks that arise in the domain by applying multiple forms of inference. As such, the paradigm applies a strict separation of concerns between information and problem solving. In this paper, we analyze the principles and feasibility of the knowledge base paradigm in the context of an important class of applications: interactive configuration problems. In interactive configuration problems, a configuration of interrelated objects under constraints is searched, where the system assists the user in reaching an intended configuration. It is widely recognized in industry that good software solutions for these problems are very difficult to develop. We investigate such problems from the perspective of the KB paradigm. We show that multiple functionalities in this domain can be achieved by applying different forms of logical inferences on a formal specification of the configuration domain. We report on a proof of concept of this approach in a real-life application with a banking company. To appear in Theory and Practice of Logic Programming (TPLP).Comment: To appear in Theory and Practice of Logic Programming (TPLP

A Scalable Design Framework for Variability Management in Large-Scale Software Product Lines

Variability management is one of the major challenges in software product line adoption, since it needs to be efficiently managed at various levels of the software product line development process (e.g., requirement analysis, design, implementation, etc.). One of the main challenges within variability management is the handling and effective visualization of large-scale (industry-size) models, which in many projects, can reach the order of thousands, along with the dependency relationships that exist among them. These have raised many concerns regarding the scalability of current variability management tools and techniques and their lack of industrial adoption. To address the scalability issues, this work employed a combination of quantitative and qualitative research methods to identify the reasons behind the limited scalability of existing variability management tools and techniques. In addition to producing a comprehensive catalogue of existing tools, the outcome form this stage helped understand the major limitations of existing tools. Based on the findings, a novel approach was created for managing variability that employed two main principles for supporting scalability. First, the separation-of-concerns principle was employed by creating multiple views of variability models to alleviate information overload. Second, hyperbolic trees were used to visualise models (compared to Euclidian space trees traditionally used). The result was an approach that can represent models encompassing hundreds of variability points and complex relationships. These concepts were demonstrated by implementing them in an existing variability management tool and using it to model a real-life product line with over a thousand variability points. Finally, in order to assess the work, an evaluation framework was designed based on various established usability assessment best practices and standards. The framework was then used with several case studies to benchmark the performance of this work against other existing tools

Vers des Lignes de produits Flexibles

National audienceAfin de faire face à la complexité du logiciel due à la variabilité de ses environnements et de ses utilisations, l'ingénierie des lignes de produits permet d'important gains en termes de coûts et de qualité de développement en systématisant la réutilisation d'éléments communs. Néanmoins, les approches actuelles manquent de flexibilité dans la prise en compte des exigences particulières à un utilisateur. Nous illustrons ici comment, en utilisant des techniques d'ingénierie des modèles telles que la composition et la transformation et en les outillant dans l'environnement de métamodelisation Kermeta, il est possible de concilier flexibilité et efficacité lors de la dérivation de produits

Localisation de fonctionnalités par analyse statique dans du code avionique configuré dynamiquement

RÉSUMÉ La localisation de l'emplacement où diverses fonctionnalités d'un logiciel sont implémentées au sein du code source peut être utile à la compréhension de programme et pour diverses activités de réingénierie. Dans l'industrie avionique, la réingénierie est un sujet d'actualité puisque plusieurs systèmes logiciels doivent être modernisés. Or, cette réingénierie doit conserver la richesse algorithmique des logiciels existants. Les travaux présentés dans ce mémoire visent donc à appuyer les efforts de réingénierie en avionique via l'utilisation d'une méthodologie de localisation de fonctionnalités à partir de l'analyse statique du code source. Le principal objectif est de définir une telle méthodologie applicable à des logiciels configurés dynamiquement, type de logiciel qu'on retrouve entre autres dans l'industrie avionique. La méthodologie développée se base sur l'extraction d'un graphe de flux de contrôle représentant le code source et l'utilisation de model checking pour vérifier diverses propriétés reliées aux fonctionnalités du logiciel. Chacune des étapes de la méthodologie est automatisée, ce qui lui confère un avantage très intéressant par rapport aux autres techniques de localisation de fonctionnalités existantes. Un second objectif des recherches présentées est d'appliquer cette méthodologie sur un système de gestion de vol provenant de l'industrie avionique. Par la suite, les résultats obtenus sont interprétés afin de déterminer la distribution des différentes fonctionnalités au sein du code source de ce logiciel. Cette distribution est présentée en termes de quantité de fichiers, de blocs de code et de lignes de code reliés à chaque fonctionnalité. La technique développée permet d'identifier le code relié à un ensemble de fonctionnalités du logiciel, ce qui serait utilisable dans une optique d'identification de produits logiciels. Les résultats obtenus peuvent donc être utilisés dans le cadre d'une réingénierie du logiciel et peuvent faciliter l'extraction d'un modèle de ligne de produits logiciels. La méthodologie présentée ici est, à notre connaissance, la première technique automatisée de localisation de fonctionnalités basées sur l'analyse statique. Les résultats obtenus suite à l'analyse du système de gestion de vol montrent que la localisation de fonctionnalités par analyse statique du code source est possible sous certaines conditions. Diverses améliorations, telles que le traitement des pointeurs de fonctions et l'analyse de la propagation des variables, pourraient éventuellement être appliquées à la méthodologie afin d'améliorer sa précision dans certains contextes.----------ABSTRACT Locating where software features are implemented in source code can be useful to program comprehension and software reengineering. In the avionics industry, reengineering is a hot topic since many software systems need to be modernized. However, this reengineering effort must preserve existing algorithms to allow their reuse. This thesis aims to support avionics software reengineering by using a feature location methodology based on static analysis of the source code. The main objective is to define such methodology applicable in dynamically configured software, a type of software sometimes found in the avionics industry. The methodology is based on the extraction of a control flow graph representing the source code and the use of model checking to verify properties related to each feature found in the software program. Each step of the methodology is automated, which provides an interesting advantage compared to other existing feature location approaches. A second objective of the researches presented in this thesis is to apply the developed methodology on a flight management system from the avionics industry. Results are then interpreted to obtain the system features' distribution over the source code. This distribution is presented by number of files, code blocks and lines of code related to each software feature. The developed methodology allows a user to obtain the source code related to a set of software features, which is information that could be used to identify software products. Thus, results can be used in the context of software reengineering and can facilitate the extraction of a software product line model. To the best our knowledge, the methodology presented here is the first automated feature location approach based solely on static analysis. Results from the analysis of the flight management system show that locating features using static analysis of the source code is possible under certain conditions. Some improvements, such as considering function pointers and the propagation of variables, could eventually be applied to our methodology to improve its precision in some contexts

Binary Pattern for Nested Cardinality Constraints for Software Product Line of IoT-Based Feature Models

Software product line (SPL) is extensively used for reusability of resources in family of products. Feature modeling is an important technique used to manage common and variable features of SPL in applications, such as Internet of Things (IoT). In order to adopt SPL for application development, organizations require information, such as cost, scope, complexity, number of features, total number of products, and combination of features for each product to start the application development. Application development of IoT is varied in different contexts, such as heat sensor indoor and outdoor environment. Variability management of IoT applications enables to find the cost, scope, and complexity. All possible combinations of features make it easy to find the cost of individual application. However, exact number of all possible products and features combination for each product is more valuable information for an organization to adopt product line. In this paper, we have proposed binary pattern for nested cardinality constraints (BPNCC), which is simple and effective approach to calculate the exact number of products with complex relationships between application's feature models. Furthermore, BPNCC approach identifies the feasible features combinations of each IoT application by tracing the constraint relationship from top-to-bottom. BPNCC is an open source and tool-independent approach that does not hide the internal information of selected and non-selected IoT features. The proposed method is validated by implementing it on small and large IoT application feature models with “n” number of constraints, and it is found that the total number of products and all features combinations in each product without any constraint violation

A Conceptual Modelling Approach to Software Variability

Variability is the ability of a system to be efficiently extended, changed, customised or configured for use in a particular context. Increasing amounts of variability are required of software systems. The number of possible variants of a software system may become very large, essentially infinite. Efficient methods for modelling and reasoning about software variability are needed and numerous such languages have been developed. Most of these languages either lack a solid conceptual foundation or a rigorous formal semantics, or both. In this dissertation, three novel software variability modelling languages, KOALISH, FORFAMEL and KUMBANG, which synthesises KOALISH and FORFAMEL, are developed. The languages are based on concepts found relevant to modelling software variability in scientific literature and practice, namely features and software architecture. They synthesise and clarify the concepts defined in a number of previous languages. Ideas first developed in product configuration research for modelling variability in non-software products are elaborated and integrated into the languages. A formal semantics is given for the languages by translation to weight constraint rule language (WCRL). One of the goals of this dissertation is to enable the representation of software variability knowledge at different levels of abstraction in a uniform manner, preferably using an existing conceptual modelling language with a formal semantics. Unfortunately, it turns out that no existing language meets these requirements. Consequently, a novel conceptual modelling language, NIVEL, with the necessary capabilities is developed in this dissertation. The modelling concepts of NIVEL are not based on software variability. Consequently, NIVEL can be applied in domains other than software variability and is hence generic and contributes to the theory of conceptual modelling. A formal semantics enabling automated, decidable reasoning is given for NIVEL by translation to WCRL. NIVEL is used to give an alternative definition of KUMBANG. The alternative definition is more compact and easily understandable than the original one. Major parts of the semantics of KUMBANG are captured by the semantics of NIVEL. The definition of KUMBANG in terms of a generic modelling language also brings software variability modelling closer to other forms of modelling, thus making software variability modelling less of an isolated discipline