Context for goal-level product line derivation

Product line engineering aims at developing a family of products and facilitating the derivation of product variants from it. Context can be a main factor in determining what products to derive. Yet, there is gap in incorporating context with variability models. We advocate that, in the first place, variability originates from human intentions and choices even before software systems are constructed, and context influences variability at this intentional level before the functional one. Thus, we propose to analyze variability at an early phase of analysis adopting the intentional ontology of goal models, and studying how context can influence such variability. Below we present a classification of variation points on goal models, analyze their relation with context, and show the process of constructing and maintaining the models. Our approach is illustrated with an example of a smarthome for people with dementia problems. 1

Review of Blockchain Technology and its Expectations: Case of the Energy Sector

This article suggests that the worldwide relevance of blockchain technology is motivated by the changes that it is expected to cause in: (i) the way that business is organised and (ii) regulated, as well as (iii) by the way that it changes the role of individuals within a society. The article presents an overview of the features of blockchain technology. It then takes a closer look into the developments within the energy sector across the world to gain a preliminary indication of whether the stated expectations are coming to reality. As a result of this review, we remain cautiously optimistic that blockchain technology could deliver the expected impact

Engineering sustainability through language

As our understanding and care for sustainability concerns increases, so does the demand for incorporating these concerns into software. Yet, existing programming language constructs are not well-aligned with concepts of the sustainability domain. This undermines what we term technical sustainability of the software due to (i) increased complexity in programming of such concerns and (ii) continuous code changes to keep up with changes in (environmental, social, legal and other) sustainability-related requirements. In this paper we present a proof-of-concept approach on how technical sustainability support for new and existing concerns can be provided through flexible language-level programming. We propose to incorporate sustainability-related behaviour into programs through micro-languages enabling such behaviour to be updated and/or redefined as and when required