Integrating performance analysis in the model driven development of software product lines

The paper proposes to integrate performance analysis in the early phases of the model-driven development process for Software Product Lines (SPL). We start by adding generic performance annotations to the UML model representing the set of core reusable SPL assets. The annotations are generic and use the MARTE Profile recently adopted by OMG. A first model transformation realized in the Atlas Transformation Language (ATL), which is the focus of this paper, derives the UML model of a specific product with concrete MARTE performance annotations from the SPL model. A second transformation generates a Layered Queueing Network performance model for the given product by applying an existing transformation approach named PUMA, developed in previous work. The proposed technique is illustrated with an e-commerce case study that models the commonality and variability in both structural and behavioural SPL views. A product is derived and the performance of two design alternatives is compared

Lightweight Testing of Communication Networks with e-Motions

This paper illustrates the use of high-level domain specific models to specify and test some performance properties of complex systems, in particular Communication Networks, using a light-weight approach. By following a Model-Driven Engineering (MDE) approach, we show the benefits of constructing very abstract models of the systems under test, which can then be easily prototyped and analysed to explore their properties. For this purpose we use e-Motions, a language and its supporting toolkit that allows end-user modelling of real-time systems and their analysis in a graphical manner.Junta de Andalucía P07-TIC-03184Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación TIN2008-0310

User-friendly approach for handling performance parameters during predictive software performance engineering

A Software Product Line (SPL) is a set of similar software systems that share a common set of features. Instead of building each product from scratch, SPL development takes advantage of the reusability of the core assets shared among the SPL members. In this work, we integrate performance analysis in the early phases of SPL development process, applying the same reusability concept to the performance annotations. Instead of annotating from scratch the UML model of every derived product, we propose to annotate the SPL model once with generic performance annotations. After deriving the model of a product from the family model by an automatic transformation, the generic performance annotations need to be bound to concrete product-specific values provided by the developer. Dealing manually with a large number of performance annotations, by asking the developer to inspect every diagram in the generated model and to extract these annotations is an error-prone process. In this paper we propose to automate the collection of all generic parameters from the product model and to present them to the developer in a user-friendly format (e.g., a spreadsheet per diagram, indicating each generic parameter together with guiding information that helps the user in providing concrete binding values). There are two kinds of generic parametric annotations handled by our approach: product-specific (corresponding to the set of features selected for the product) and platform-specific (such as device choices, network connections, middleware, and runtime environment). The following model transformations for (a) generating a product model with generic annotations from the SPL model, (b) building the spreadsheet with generic parameters and guiding information, and (c) performing the actual binding are all realized in the Atlas Transformation Language (ATL). Copyright 2012 ACM

Towards automatic derivation of a product performance model from a UML software product line model

Software Product Line (SPL) engineering is a software development approach that takes advantage of the commonality and variability between products from a family, and supports the generation of specific products by reusing a set of core family assets. This paper proposes a UML model transformation approach for software product lines to derive a performance model for a specific product. The input to the proposed technique, the "source model", is a UML model of a SPL with performance annotations, which uses two separate profiles: a "product line" profile from literature for specifying the commonality and variability between products, and the MARTE profile recently standardized by OMG for performance annotations. The source model is generic and therefore its performance annotations must be parameterized. The proposed derivation of a performance model for a concrete product requires two steps: a) the transformation of a SPL model to a UML model with performance annotations for a given product, and b) the transformation of the outcome of the first step into a performance model. This paper focuses on the first step, whereas the second step will use the PUMA transformation approach of annotated UML models to performance models, developed in previous work. The output of the first step, named "target model", is a UML model with MARTE annotations, where the variability expressed in the SPL model has been analyzed and bound to a specific product, and the generic performance annotations have been bound to concrete values for the product. The proposed technique is illustrated with an e-commerce case study. Copyright 2008 ACM