Feature Model Differences

International audienceFeature models are a widespread means to represent commonality and variability in software product lines. As is the case for other kinds of models, computing and managing feature model differences is useful in various real-world situations. In this paper, we propose a set of novel differencing techniques that combine syntactic and semantic mechanisms, and automatically produce meaningful differences. Practitioners can exploit our results in various ways: to understand, manipulate, visualize and reason about differences. They can also combine them with existing feature model composition and decomposition operators. The proposed automations rely on satisfiability algorithms. They come with a dedicated language and a comprehensive environment. We illustrate and evaluate the practical usage of our techniques through a case study dealing with a configurable component framework

Automated analysis of feature models: Quo vadis?

Feature models have been used since the 90's to describe software product lines as a way of reusing common parts in a family of software systems. In 2010, a systematic literature review was published summarizing the advances and settling the basis of the area of Automated Analysis of Feature Models (AAFM). From then on, different studies have applied the AAFM in different domains. In this paper, we provide an overview of the evolution of this field since 2010 by performing a systematic mapping study considering 423 primary sources. We found six different variability facets where the AAFM is being applied that define the tendencies: product configuration and derivation; testing and evolution; reverse engineering; multi-model variability-analysis; variability modelling and variability-intensive systems. We also confirmed that there is a lack of industrial evidence in most of the cases. Finally, we present where and when the papers have been published and who are the authors and institutions that are contributing to the field. We observed that the maturity is proven by the increment in the number of journals published along the years as well as the diversity of conferences and workshops where papers are published. We also suggest some synergies with other areas such as cloud or mobile computing among others that can motivate further research in the future.Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad TIN2015-70560-RJunta de Andalucía TIC-186

Domain Specific Languages for Managing Feature Models: Advances and Challenges

International audienceManaging multiple and complex feature models is a tedious and error-prone activity in software product line engineering. Despite many advances in formal methods and analysis techniques, the supporting tools and APIs are not easily usable together, nor unified. In this paper, we report on the development and evolution of the Familiar Domain-Specific Language (DSL). Its toolset is dedicated to the large scale management of feature models through a good support for separating concerns, composing feature models and scripting manipulations. We overview various applications of Familiar and discuss both advantages and identified drawbacks. We then devise salient challenges to improve such DSL support in the near future

A Scalable Log Differencing Visualisation Applied to COBOL Refactoring

This is a virtual machine image containing the tool presented in the referenced paper. It goes along it as an Artifact so anyone car reuse our tool (Note that data is obfuscated due to confidentiality

Feature Model-Guided Online Reinforcement Learning for Self-Adaptive Services

International audienceA self-adaptive service can maintain its QoS requirements in the presence of dynamic environment changes. To develop a self-adaptive service, service engineers have to create self-adaptation logic encoding when the service should execute which adaptation actions. However, developing self-adaptation logic may be difficult due to design time uncertainty ; e.g., anticipating all potential environment changes at design time is in most cases infeasible. Online reinforcement learning addresses design time uncertainty by learning suitable adaptation actions through interactions with the environment at runtime. To learn more about its environment, reinforcement learning has to select actions that were not selected before, which is known as exploration. How exploration happens has an impact on the performance of the learning process. We focus on two problems related to how a service's adaptation actions are explored: (1) Existing solutions randomly explore adaptation actions and thus may exhibit slow learning if there are many possible adaptation actions to choose from. (2) Existing solutions are unaware of service evolution, and thus may explore new adaptation actions introduced during such evolution rather late. We propose novel exploration strategies that use feature models (from software product line engineering) to guide exploration in the presence of many adaptation actions and in the presence of service evolution. Experimental results for a self-adaptive cloud management service indicate an average speed-up of the learning process of 58.8% in the presence of many adaptation actions, and of 61.3% in the presence of service evolution. The improved learning performance in turn led to an average QoS improvement of 7.8% and 23.7% respectively

Konsistente Feature Modell gesteuerte Softwareproduktlinien Evolution

SPLs are an approach to manage families of closely related software systems in terms of configurable functionality. A feature model captures common and variable functionalities of an SPL on a conceptual level in terms of features. Reusable artifacts, such as code, documentation, or tests are related to features using a feature-artifact mapping. A product of an SPL can be derived by selecting features in a configuration. Over the course of time, SPLs and their artifacts are subject to change. As SPLs are particularly complex, their evolution is a challenging task. Consequently, SPL evolution must be thoroughly planned well in advance. However, plans typically do not turn out as expected and, thus, replanning is required. Feature models lean themselves for driving SPL evolution. However, replanning of feature-model evolution can lead to inconsistencies and feature-model anomalies may be introduced during evolution. Along with feature-model evolution, other SPL artifacts, especially configurations, need to consistently evolve. The work of this thesis provides remedy to the aforementioned challenges by presenting an approach for consistent evolution of SPLs. The main contributions of this thesis can be distinguished into three key areas: planning and replanning feature-model evolution, analyzing feature-model evolution, and consistent SPL artifact evolution. As a starting point for SPL evolution, we introduce Temporal Feature Models (TFMs) that allow capturing the entire evolution timeline of a feature model in one artifact, i.e., past history, present changes, and planned evolution steps. We provide an execution semantics of feature-model evolution operations that guarantees consistency of feature-model evolution timelines. To keep feature models free from anomalies, we introduce analyses to detect anomalies in feature-model evolution timelines and explain these anomalies in terms of their causing evolution operations. To enable consistent SPL artifact evolution, we generalize the concept of modeling evolution timelines in TFMs to be applicable for any modeling language. Moreover, we provide a methodology that enables involved engineers to define and use guidance for configuration evolution.Softwareproduktlinien (SPLs) ermöglichen es, konfigurierbare Funktionalität von eng verwandten Softwaresystemen zu verwalten. In einem Feature Modell werden gemeinsame und variable Funktionalitäten einer SPL auf Basis abstrakter Features modelliert. Wiederverwendbare Artefakte werden in einem Feature-Artefakt Mapping Features zugeordnet. Ein Produkt einer SPL kann abgeleitet werden, indem Features in einer Konfiguration ausgewählt werden. Im Laufe der Zeit müssen sich SPLs und deren Artefakte verändern. Da SPLs ganze Softwarefamilien modellieren, ist deren Evolution eine besonders herausfordernde Aufgabe, die gründlich im Voraus geplant werden muss. Feature Modelle eignen sich besonders als Planungsmittel einer SPL. Umplanung von Feature Modell Evolution kann jedoch zu Inkonsistenzen führen und Feature Modell Anomalien können im Zuge der Evolution eingeführt werden. Im Anschluss an die Feature Modell Evolution muss die Evolution anderer SPL Artefakte, insbesondere Konfigurationen, konsistent modelliert werden. In dieser Arbeit wird ein Ansatz zur konsistenten Evolution von SPLs vorgestellt, der die zuvor genannten Herausforderungen adressiert. Die Beiträge dieser Arbeit lassen sich in drei Kernbereiche aufteilen: Planung und Umplanung von Feature Modell Evolution, Analyse von Feature Modell Evolution und konsistente Evolution von SPL Artefakten. Temporal Feature Models (TFMs) werden als Startpunkt für SPL Evolution eingeführt. In einem TFM wird die gesamte Evolutionszeitlinie eines Feature Modells in einem Artefakt abgebildet, was sowohl vergangene Änderungen, den aktuellen Zustand, als auch geplante Änderungen beinhaltet. Auf Basis einer Ausführungssemantik wird die Konsistenz von Feature Modell Evolutionszeitlinien sichergestellt. Um Feature Modelle frei von Anomalien zu halten, werden Analysen eingeführt, welche die gesamte Evolutionszeitlinie eines Feature Modells auf Anomalien untersucht und diese mit verursachenden Evolutionsoperationen erklärt. Das Konzept zur Modellierung von Feature Modell Evolutionszeitlinien aus TFMs wird verallgemeinert, um die gesamte Evolution von Modellen beliebiger Modellierungssprachen spezifizieren zu können. Des Weiteren wird eine Methodik vorgestellt, die beteiligten Ingenieuren eine geführte Evolution von Konfigurationen ermöglicht

A Change Management Approach in Product Lines for Use Case-Driven Development and Testing

In this paper, driven by industrial needs, we present a change management approach for product lines within the context of use case-driven development and testing. As part of the approach, we first provide a modeling method to support variability modeling in Product Line (PL) use case diagrams, specifications, and domain models, intentionally avoiding any reliance on feature models and thus avoiding unnecessary modeling and traceability overhead. Then, we introduce a use case-driven configuration approach based on the proposed modelling method to automatically generate Product Specific (PS) use case and domain models from the PL models and configuration decisions. Building on this, we provide a change impact analysis approach for evolving configuration decisions in PL use case models. In addition, we plan to develop a change impact analysis approach for evolving PL use case models and an automated regression test selection technique for evolving configuration decisions and PL models

Anwendungen von #SAT Solvern für Produktlinien: Masterarbeit

Product lines are widely used for managing families of similar products. Typically, product lines are complex and infeasible to analyze manually. In the last two decades, product-line analyses have been reduced to satisfiability problems which are well understood. However, there are methods for which satisfiability is not sufficient. Recently, researchers begun to reduce other problems to #SAT. Yet, only few applications have been considered and those are fairly limited in their scope. Furthermore, the authors mainly propose ad-hoc solutions that are only applicable under certain restrictions or do not scale to large product lines. In this thesis, we aim show the benefits of applying #SAT for the analysis of product lines. To this end, we make the following contributions: First, we summarize applications dependent on #AT considered in the literature and propose new applications to motivate the usage of #SAT technology. Second, we present a variety of algorithms and optimizations for these applications including new proposals. Third, we empirically evaluate 10 proposed algorithms with 14 off-the-shelf #SAT solvers on 131 industrial feature models to identify the fastest algorithms and solvers. Our results show that for each analysis at least one algorithm and solver scale on a vast majority of the feature models, whereas Linux and an automotive model not be analyzed at all. In addition, our results further reveal the benefits of knowledge compilation to deterministic decomposable negation normal form for performing counting-based analyses. Overall, our work shows that #SAT dependent analyses for feature models open a new variety of different applications and scale to a large number of industrial feature models.Produktlinien sind weit verbreitet für die Verwaltung von Familien verwandter Pro- dukte. In der Regel sind Produktlinien komplex und manuell schwer zu analysieren. In den letzten zwei Jahrzehnten wurden Produktlinienanalysen auf Erfüllbarkeit- sprobleme reduziert, für welche es eine Vielzahl an effizienten Werkzeugen gibt. Allerdings ist Erfüllbarkeit nicht für alle Analysen hinreichend. Kürzlich haben Forscher damit begonnen, andere Probleme auf #SAT zu reduzieren. Es wur- den jedoch nur wenige Anwendungen in Betracht gezogen und auch der Anwen- dungsbereich ist begrenzt. Darüber hinaus schlagen die Autoren hauptsächlich Ad-hoc-Lösungen vor, die nur unter bestimmten Einschränkungen der Produktlin- ien anwendbar sind oder nicht für große Produktlinien skalieren. In dieser Arbeit zeigen wir die Vorteile von #SAT Anwendungen für Produtlinien auf. Unser wis- senschaftlicher Beitrag besteht aus den folgenden drei Punkten: Zuerst fassen wir die in der Literatur betrachteten #SAT-Anwendungen zusammen und schlagen neue Anwendungen vor, um den Einsatz von #SAT-Technologien zu motivieren. Zweit- ens stellen wir eine Vielzahl von Algorithmen und Optimierungen für diese Anwen- dungen vor, einschließlich neuer Vorschläge. Drittens führen wir eine empirische Evaluation von 10 der vorgeschlagenen Algorithmen mit 14 #SAT-Solvern auf 131 industriellen Feature-Modellen aus, um die schnellsten Algorithmen und Solver zu identifizieren. Die Ergebnisse der Evaluation zeigen, dass wir für jede Analyse wenig- stens einen Algorithmus und Solver identifiziert haben, die für industrielle Feature- Modelle skalieren. Dazu sind die Ergebnisse ein starker Indikator für die Vorteile des Einsatzes von d-DNNFs bei #SAT-Anwendungen. Insgesamt zeigt unsere Ar- beit, dass #SAT-abhängige Analysen für Feature-Modelle eine Vielzahl neuer un- terschiedlicher Anwendungen ermöglicht und für viele industirelle Feature-Modelle skaliert