Defining and validating a multimodel approach for product architecture derivation and improvement

The final publication is available at Springer via http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-41533-3_24Software architectures are the key to achieving the non-functional requirements (NFRs) in any software project. In software product line (SPL) development, it is crucial to identify whether the NFRs for a specific product can be attained with the built-in architectural variation mechanisms of the product line architecture, or whether additional architectural transformations are required. This paper presents a multimodel approach for quality-driven product architecture derivation and improvement (QuaDAI). A controlled experiment is also presented with the objective of comparing the effectiveness, efficiency, perceived ease of use, intention to use and perceived usefulness with regard to participants using QuaDAI as opposed to the Architecture Tradeoff Analysis Method (ATAM). The results show that QuaDAI is more efficient and perceived as easier to use than ATAM, from the perspective of novice software architecture evaluators. However, the other variables were not found to be statistically significant. Further replications are needed to obtain more conclusive results.This research is supported by the MULTIPLE project (MICINN TIN2009-13838) and the Vali+D fellowship program (ACIF/2011/235).González Huerta, J.; Insfrán Pelozo, CE.; Abrahao Gonzales, SM. (2013). Defining and validating a multimodel approach for product architecture derivation and improvement. En Model-Driven Engineering Languages and Systems. Springer. 388-404. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-41533-3_24S388404Ali-Babar, M., Lago, P., Van Deursen, A.: Empirical research in software architecture: opportunities, challenges, and approaches. 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Towards a Modular Product Line of Graphical Editors

This thesis addresses designing Product Lines (PLs) of Graphical Editors (GEs). It provides a feasible top-down design approach specialized on such Graphical Editor Product Lines (GEPLs), which can be configured dynamically. Furthermore, the end product's features are implemented modular, which has numerous positive effects on the development and maintenance processes for the family. These effects reach from decreasing the complexity of big PLs, allowing to delegate split up development tasks onto multiple isolated working teams, easier debugging and flexibility to extend or specialize a family of products as well as being able to use functionalities developed by third-party vendors. While design methods avoiding monolithic architectures and implementations exist for many PL domains, there are none known for GEPLs. Yet, the domain of those offers many challenges as GEPLs are actually comprised of Software Product Lines (SPLs) and Language Product Lines (LPLs), which is a combination untackled by any modular design approach known to me. Additionally, products in the domain require to implement multiple distinct and specific concerns, leading to artifacts which differ significantly but have to be located and managed in a single component. Overall, this justifies the need for specialized design approaches for the GEPL domain. In regard to this need, this thesis gives an overview of the existing landscape of approaches to design PLs, analyzing solutions offered by other researchers. Furthermore, a requirement analysis for the GEPL domain is conducted. Its results are the foundation for the presentation of a top-down design approach for dynamically configurable GEPLs, which are implemented feature modularly. Finally, a case study documenting the development of such a family of GEs is providing a proof of its feasibility.:1 Introduction 1.1 Motivation 1.2 Problem Definition 1.3 Outline 1.4 Terminology 2 Survey on Software and Language Product Line Design 2.1 Classification Scheme 2.1.1 Domain 2.1.2 Configuration 2.1.3 Design Method 2.1.4 Modularity 2.2 Overview 2.3 Discussion 2.3.1 Evaluation 2.3.2 Results 3 Requirements of Graphical Editor Product Lines 32 3.1 Functional Requirements 3.1.1 Edit Concerns 3.1.2 Language Family Concerns 3.2 Non-Functional Requirements 3.2.1 User Requirements 3.2.2 Development Requirements 4 Design of Graphical Editor Product Lines 4.1 Characteristics 4.2 Design Approach 4.2.1 Edit Concerns 4.2.2 Language Family Concerns 4.3 Discussion 4.3.1 Techniques 4.3.2 Evaluation 5 Case study: Modularization of a Family of Graphical Editors 5.1 Background 5.1.1 Compartment Role Object Model 5.1.2 Full-fledged Role Modeling Editor 5.1.3 Reusable Technology 5.2 Realization 5.2.1 Edit Concerns 5.2.2 Language Family Concerns 5.3 Discussion 5.3.1 Requirements 5.3.2 Limitations of the Modularization 5.3.3 Results 6 Conclusion 6.1 Summary 6.1.1 Desired Properties 6.1.2 Feasibility 6.2 Contributions 6.3 Future Work 6.3.1 Bottom-Up Design Method 6.3.2 Requirements 6.3.3 Modularizatio

A Product Line Systems Engineering Process for Variability Identification and Reduction

Software Product Line Engineering has attracted attention in the last two decades due to its promising capabilities to reduce costs and time to market through reuse of requirements and components. In practice, developing system level product lines in a large-scale company is not an easy task as there may be thousands of variants and multiple disciplines involved. The manual reuse of legacy system models at domain engineering to build reusable system libraries and configurations of variants to derive target products can be infeasible. To tackle this challenge, a Product Line Systems Engineering process is proposed. Specifically, the process extends research in the System Orthogonal Variability Model to support hierarchical variability modeling with formal definitions; utilizes Systems Engineering concepts and legacy system models to build the hierarchy for the variability model and to identify essential relations between variants; and finally, analyzes the identified relations to reduce the number of variation points. The process, which is automated by computational algorithms, is demonstrated through an illustrative example on generalized Rolls-Royce aircraft engine control systems. To evaluate the effectiveness of the process in the reduction of variation points, it is further applied to case studies in different engineering domains at different levels of complexity. Subject to system model availability, reduction of 14% to 40% in the number of variation points are demonstrated in the case studies.Comment: 12 pages, 6 figures, 2 tables; submitted to the IEEE Systems Journal on 3rd June 201

Variability and Evolution in Systems of Systems

In this position paper (1) we discuss two particular aspects of Systems of Systems, i.e., variability and evolution. (2) We argue that concepts from Product Line Engineering and Software Evolution are relevant to Systems of Systems Engineering. (3) Conversely, concepts from Systems of Systems Engineering can be helpful in Product Line Engineering and Software Evolution. Hence, we argue that an exchange of concepts between the disciplines would be beneficial.Comment: In Proceedings AiSoS 2013, arXiv:1311.319

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

Early Quantitative Assessment of Non-Functional Requirements

Non-functional requirements (NFRs) of software systems are a well known source of uncertainty in effort estimation. Yet, quantitatively approaching NFR early in a project is hard. This paper makes a step towards reducing the impact of uncertainty due to NRF. It offers a solution that incorporates NFRs into the functional size quantification process. The merits of our solution are twofold: first, it lets us quantitatively assess the NFR modeling process early in the project, and second, it lets us generate test cases for NFR verification purposes. We chose the NFR framework as a vehicle to integrate NFRs into the requirements modeling process and to apply quantitative assessment procedures. Our solution proposal also rests on the functional size measurement method, COSMIC-FFP, adopted in 2003 as the ISO/IEC 19761 standard. We extend its use for NFR testing purposes, which is an essential step for improving NFR development and testing effort estimates, and consequently for managing the scope of NFRs. We discuss the advantages of our approach and the open questions related to its design as well

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The customer mostly chooses a product on the base of its quality, which therefore arises as the main cause of its commercial success. In a nearly axiomatic drawing, it follows that the effect of innovation is the improvement of quality, which itself becomes the aim of innovation. Even though the previous statement relates quality and innovation, it still does not explain their dynamics. To stress them, the ‘quality' concept must be analyzed in more detail. In fact, in addition to the ‘perceived quality', the quality ensured through `design, manufacturing and marketing' combined domains should be dealt with. This paper enhances this issue taking advantage of principles and models made available by control theory schemes coupled with quality function development (QFD) and best practice software modeling based on unified modeling language (UML

Using Feature Models for Distributed Deployment in Extended Smart Home Architecture

Nowadays, smart home is extended beyond the house itself to encompass connected platforms on the Cloud as well as mobile personal devices. This Smart Home Extended Architecture (SHEA) helps customers to remain in touch with their home everywhere and any time. The endless increase of connected devices in the home and outside within the SHEA multiplies the deployment possibilities for any application. Therefore, SHEA should be taken from now as the actual target platform for smart home application deployment. Every home is different and applications offer different services according to customer preferences. To manage this variability, we extend the feature modeling from software product line domain with deployment constraints and we present an example of a model that could address this deployment challenge