research-article

A comparison of decision modeling approaches in product lines

Authors:

Paul GrünbacherAuthors Info & Claims

VaMoS '11: Proceedings of the 5th International Workshop on Variability Modeling of Software-Intensive Systems

Pages 119 - 126

https://doi.org/10.1145/1944892.1944907

Published: 27 January 2011 Publication History

Abstract

It has been shown that product line engineering can significantly improve the productivity, quality and time-to-market of software development by leveraging extensive reuse. Variability models are currently the most advanced approach to define, document and manage the commonalities and variabilities of reusable artifacts such as software components, requirements, test cases, etc. These models provide the basis for automating the derivation of new products and are thus the key artifact to leverage the flexibility and adaptability of systems in a product line. Among the existing approaches to variability modeling feature modeling and decision modeling have gained most importance. A significant amount of research exists on comparing and analyzing different feature modeling approaches. However, despite their significant role in product line research and practical applications, only little effort has been devoted to compare and analyze decision modeling approaches. In order to address this shortcoming and to provide a basis for more structured research on decision modeling in the future, we present a comparative analysis of representative approaches. We identify their major modeling concepts and present an analysis of their commonalities and variabilities.

References

[1]

C. Atkinson, J. Bayer, C. Bunse, E. Kamsties, O. Laitenberger, R. Laqua, D. Muthig, B. Paech, J. Wüst, and J. Zettel, Component-Based Product Line Engineering with UML: Addison-Wesley, 2002.

Digital Library

[2]

C. Atkinson, J. Bayer, and D. Muthig, "Component-Based Product Line Development: The KobrA Approach," Proc. of the First Software Product Line Conference (SPLC-1), Denver, CO, USA, Kluwer Academic Publishers, 2000, pp. 289--309.

Digital Library

[3]

T. Berger, S. She, R. Lotufo, A. Wasowski, and K. Czarnecki, "Variability Modeling in the Real: A Perspective from the Operating Systems Domain," Proc. of the 25th IEEE/ACM International Conference on Automated Software Engineering, Antwerp, Belgium, ACM, 2010, pp. 73--82.

Digital Library

[4]

D. Benavides, S. Segura, and A. Ruiz-Cortés, "Automated analysis of feature models 20 years later," Information Systems, vol. 35(6), pp. 615--636, 2010.

Digital Library

[5]

D. Benavides, S. Segura, P. Trinidad, and A. Ruiz-Cortes, "A Framework for the Automated Analysis of Feature Models," Proc. of the First International Workshop on Variability Modelling of Software-intensive Systems (VaMoS 2007), Limerick, Ireland, Lero Technical Report 2007-01, 2007, pp. 129--134.

[6]

L. Chen, M. A. Babar, and N. Ali, "Variability Management in Software Product Lines: A Systematic Review," Proc. of the 13th International Software Product Line Conference (SPLC 2009), San Francisco, CA, USA, Software Engineering Institute, Carnegie Mellon, 2009, pp. 81--90.

Digital Library

[7]

A. Classen, P. Heymans, and P.-Y. Schobbens, "What's in a Feature: A Requirements Engineering Perspective," Proc. of the Fundamental Approaches to Software Engineering (FASE), Budapest, Hungary, Springer, 2008, pp. 16--30.

Digital Library

[8]

P. Clements and L. Northrop, Software Product Lines: Practices and Patterns: SEI Series in Software Engineering, Addison-Wesley, 2001.

Digital Library

[9]

D. Dhungana, P. Grünbacher, R. Rabiser, and T. Neumayer, "Structuring the Modeling Space and Supporting Evolution in Software Product Line Engineering," Journal of Systems and Software, vol. 83(7), pp. 1108--1122, 2010.

Digital Library

[10]

D. Dhungana, P. Grünbacher, and R. Rabiser, "The DOPLER Meta-Tool for Decision-Oriented Variability Modeling: A Multiple Case Study," Automated Software Engineering, 2010 (in press;

[11]

T. Forster, D. Muthig, and D. Pech, "Understanding Decision Models -- Visualization and Complexity reduction of Software Variability," Proc. of the Second International Workshop on Variability Modelling of Software-Intensive Systems (VaMoS 2008), Essen, Germany, ICB Research Report, 2008, pp. 111--119.

[12]

European Software Institute Spain and IKV++ Technologies AG Germany, "MASTER: Model-driven Architecture inSTrumentation, Enhancement and Refinement," IST-2001-34600, MASTER-2002-D1.1-V1-PUBLIC 2002.

[13]

H. Gomaa, Designing Software Product Lines with UML: Addison-Wesley, 2005.

Digital Library

[14]

Ø. Haugen, B. Møller-Pedersen, J. Oldevik, G. Olsen, and A. Svendsen, "Adding Standardized Variability to Domain Specific Languages," Proc. of the 12th International Software Product Line Conference (SPLC 2008), Limerick, Ireland, IEEE CS, 2008, pp. 139--148.

Digital Library

[15]

F. Heidenreich, J. Kopcsek, and C. Wende, "FeatureMapper: mapping features to models," Proc. of the 30th International Conference on Software Engineering (ICSE'08), Leipzig, Germany, ACM, 2008, pp. 943--944.

Digital Library

[16]

K. C. Kang, S. Cohen, J. Hess, W. Nowak, and S. Peterson, "Feature-oriented domain analysis (FODA) feasibility study," Technical Report CMU/SEI-90TR-21, Software Engineering Institute, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA, USA 1990.

[17]

J. X. Mansell and D. Sellier, "Decision Model and Flexible Component Definition Based on XML Technology," Proc. of the 5th International Workshop on Software Product-Family Engineering (PFE 2003), Siena, Italy, Springer Berlin Heidelberg, 2003, pp. 466--472.

[18]

D. Muthig, A Light-Weight Approach Facilitating an Evolutionary Transition Towards Software Product Lines: PhD thesis, University of Kaiserslautern, IRB Verlag, 2002.

[19]

K. Pohl, G. Böckle, and F. van der Linden, Software Product Line Engineering: Foundations, Principles, and Techniques: Springer, 2005.

Digital Library

[20]

R. Rabiser, P. Grünbacher, and D. Dhungana, "Supporting Product Derivation by Adapting and Augmenting Variability Models, "Proc. of the 11th International Software Product Line Conference (SPLC 2007), Kyoto, Japan, IEEE CS, 2007, pp. 141--150.

Digital Library

[21]

R. Rabiser, D. Dhungana, W. Heider, and P. Grünbacher, "Flexibility and End-User Support in Model-based Product Line Tools," Proc. of the 35th EUROMICRO Converence on Software Engineering and Advanced Applications (SEAA) 2009, Patras, Greece, IEEE CS, 2009, pp. 508--511.

Digital Library

[22]

M. Sinnema and S. Deelstra, "Classifying variability modeling techniques," Information and Software Technology, vol. 49(7), pp. 717--739, 2006.

Digital Library

[23]

K. Schmid, U. Becker-Kornstaedt, P. Knauber, and F. Bernauer, "Introducing a software modeling concept in a medium-sized company," Proc. of the 22nd International Conference on Software Engineering (ICSE 2000), Limerick, Ireland, ACM, 2000, pp. 558--567.

Digital Library

[24]

K. Schmid and H. Eichelberger, "Model-Based Implementation of Meta-Variability Constructs: A Case Study using Aspects," Proc. of the Second International Workshop on Variability Modelling of Software-intensive Systems (VaMoS 2008), Essen, Germany, ICB Research Report, 2008, pp. 63--71.

[25]

K. Schmid and I. John, "A Customizable Approach to Full-Life Cycle Variability Management," Journal of the Science of Computer Programming, Special Issue on Variability Management, vol. 53(3), pp. 259--284, 2004.

Digital Library

[26]

K. Schmid, I. John, R. Kolb, and G. Meier, "Introducing the PuLSE Approach to an Embedded System Population at Testo AG," Proc. of the 27th International Conference on Software Engineering (ICSE'05), St. Louis, MO, USA ACM, 2005, pp. 544--552.

Digital Library

[27]

K. Schmid, K. Krennrich, and M. Eisenbarth, "Requirements Management for Product Lines: Extending Professional Tools," Proc. of the 10th International Software Product Line Conference (SPLC 2006), Baltimore, MD, USA, IEEE CS, pp. 113--122.

Digital Library

[28]

P.-Y. Schobbens, P. Heymans, J.-C. Trigaux, and Y. Bontemps, "Feature Diagrams: A Survey and a Formal Semantics," Proc. of the 14th IEEE International Requirements Engineering Conference (RE'06), Minneapolis, MN, USA, IEEE CS, 2006, pp. 139--148.

Digital Library

[29]

Software Productivity Consortium Services Corporation, "Reuse-Driven Software Processes," Technical Report SPC-92019-CMC, Version 02.00.03, November 1993.

[30]

F. van der Linden, K. Schmid, and E. Rommes, Software Product Lines in Action - The Best Industrial Practice in Product Line Engineering: Springer Berlin Heidelberg, 2007.

Digital Library

[31]

M. Vierhauser, P. Grünbacher, A. Egyed, R. Rabiser, and W. Heider, "Flexible and Scalable Consistency Checking on Product Line Variability Models," Proc. of the 25th IEEE/ACM International Conference on Automated Software Engineering (ASE 2010), Antwerp, Belgium, ACM, 2010, pp. 63--72.

Digital Library

[32]

D. Weiss and C. T. R. Lai, Software Product-Line Engineering: A Family-Based Software Development Process: Addison Wesley Professional, 1999.

Digital Library

[33]

D. Weiss, J. J. Li, H. Slye, and H. Sun, "Decision-Model-Based Code Generation for SPLE," Proc. of the 12th International Software Product Line Conference (SPLC 2008), Limerick, Ireland, IEEE CS, 2008, pp. 129--138.

Digital Library

Cited By

Heisinger MPiminger FSeidl M(2024)From Decision Models To User-Guiding Configurators Using SMTProceedings of the 18th International Working Conference on Variability Modelling of Software-Intensive Systems10.1145/3634713.3634718(11-16)Online publication date: 7-Feb-2024
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3634713.3634718
Greiner SWiesmayr BFeichtinger KMeixner KKonersmann MPfeiffer JOberlehner MSchmalzing DWortmann ARumpe BRabiser RZoitl A(2023)Maturity Evaluation of Domain-Specific Language Ecosystems for Cyber-Physical Production Systems2023 IEEE 28th International Conference on Emerging Technologies and Factory Automation (ETFA)10.1109/ETFA54631.2023.10275624(1-8)Online publication date: 12-Sep-2023
https://doi.org/10.1109/ETFA54631.2023.10275624
Horcas JPinto MFuentes L(2023)A modular metamodel and refactoring rules to achieve software product line interoperabilityJournal of Systems and Software10.1016/j.jss.2022.111579197:COnline publication date: 1-Mar-2023
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1016/j.jss.2022.111579
Show More Cited By

Index Terms

A comparison of decision modeling approaches in product lines
1. Software and its engineering
  1. Software creation and management
    1. Software development process management
      1. Software development methods
    2. Software development techniques
      1. Reusability

Recommendations

TRAVART: An Approach for Transforming Variability Models
VaMoS '21: Proceedings of the 15th International Working Conference on Variability Modelling of Software-Intensive Systems

A large number of variability modeling approaches have been developed including feature modeling, decision modeling, and Orthogonal Variability Modeling (OVM). Multiple variants of each approach have been developed, i.e., there are many different types ...
Cool features and tough decisions: a comparison of variability modeling approaches
VaMoS '12: Proceedings of the 6th International Workshop on Variability Modeling of Software-Intensive Systems

Variability modeling is essential for defining and managing the commonalities and variabilities in software product lines. Numerous variability modeling approaches exist today to support domain and application engineering activities. Most are based on ...
Variability Modeling for Service Oriented Product Line Architectures
SPLC '11: Proceedings of the 2011 15th International Software Product Line Conference

Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) has emerged as a model for distributed computing that promotes flexible deployment and reuse. Software product lines (SPL) promote reusable development for product families. SOA systems need the capability of managing ...

Comments

Information & Contributors

Information

Published In

cover image ACM Other conferences

VaMoS '11: Proceedings of the 5th International Workshop on Variability Modeling of Software-Intensive Systems

January 2011

174 pages

ISBN:9781450305709

DOI:10.1145/1944892

General Chair:
Patrick Heymans
PReCISE, University of Namur, Belgium
,
Program Chairs:
Krzysztof Czarnecki
University of Waterloo, Canada
,
Ulrich W. Eisenecker
University of Leipzig, Germany

Copyright © 2011 ACM.

Permission to make digital or hard copies of all or part of this work for personal or classroom use is granted without fee provided that copies are not made or distributed for profit or commercial advantage and that copies bear this notice and the full citation on the first page. Copyrights for components of this work owned by others than ACM must be honored. Abstracting with credit is permitted. To copy otherwise, or republish, to post on servers or to redistribute to lists, requires prior specific permission and/or a fee. Request permissions from [email protected]

Publisher

Association for Computing Machinery

New York, NY, United States

Publication History

Published: 27 January 2011

Permissions

Request permissions for this article.

Request Permissions

Check for updates

Author Tags

Qualifiers

Research-article

Conference

VaMoS '11

VaMoS '11: 2011 Variability Modeling of Software-intensive Systems

January 27 - 29, 2011

Namur, Belgium

Acceptance Rates

Overall Acceptance Rate 66 of 147 submissions, 45%

Contributors

Other Metrics

View Article Metrics

Bibliometrics & Citations

Bibliometrics

Article Metrics

89
Total Citations
View Citations
769
Total Downloads

Downloads (Last 12 months)32
Downloads (Last 6 weeks)2

Reflects downloads up to 15 Sep 2024

Other Metrics

View Author Metrics

Citations

Cited By

Heisinger MPiminger FSeidl M(2024)From Decision Models To User-Guiding Configurators Using SMTProceedings of the 18th International Working Conference on Variability Modelling of Software-Intensive Systems10.1145/3634713.3634718(11-16)Online publication date: 7-Feb-2024
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3634713.3634718
Greiner SWiesmayr BFeichtinger KMeixner KKonersmann MPfeiffer JOberlehner MSchmalzing DWortmann ARumpe BRabiser RZoitl A(2023)Maturity Evaluation of Domain-Specific Language Ecosystems for Cyber-Physical Production Systems2023 IEEE 28th International Conference on Emerging Technologies and Factory Automation (ETFA)10.1109/ETFA54631.2023.10275624(1-8)Online publication date: 12-Sep-2023
https://doi.org/10.1109/ETFA54631.2023.10275624
Horcas JPinto MFuentes L(2023)A modular metamodel and refactoring rules to achieve software product line interoperabilityJournal of Systems and Software10.1016/j.jss.2022.111579197:COnline publication date: 1-Mar-2023
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1016/j.jss.2022.111579
De Sanctis MDi Salle AIovino LRossi M(2023)A technology transfer journey to a model-driven access control systemInternational Journal on Software Tools for Technology Transfer10.1007/s10009-023-00697-z25:1(49-74)Online publication date: 10-Feb-2023
https://doi.org/10.1007/s10009-023-00697-z
Knieke CRausch ASchindler MStrasser AVogel M(2022)Managed Evolution of Automotive Software Product Line Architectures: A Systematic Literature StudyElectronics10.3390/electronics1112186011:12(1860)Online publication date: 13-Jun-2022
https://doi.org/10.3390/electronics11121860
Feichtinger KSundermann CThüm TRabiser RFelfernig AFuentes L(2022)It's your lossProceedings of the 26th ACM International Systems and Software Product Line Conference - Volume A10.1145/3546932.3546990(67-78)Online publication date: 12-Sep-2022
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3546932.3546990
Greiner SNieke MSeidl C(2022)Towards Trace-Based Synchronization of Variability Annotations in Evolving Model-Driven Product LinesProceedings of the 16th International Working Conference on Variability Modelling of Software-Intensive Systems10.1145/3510466.3510470(1-10)Online publication date: 23-Feb-2022
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3510466.3510470
Casquina JMontecchi LMousavi MSchobbens P(2021)A proposal for organizing source code variability in the git version control systemProceedings of the 25th ACM International Systems and Software Product Line Conference - Volume A10.1145/3461001.3471141(82-88)Online publication date: 6-Sep-2021
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3461001.3471141
Feichtinger KStöbich JRomano DRabiser R(2021)TRAVART: An Approach for Transforming Variability ModelsProceedings of the 15th International Working Conference on Variability Modelling of Software-Intensive Systems10.1145/3442391.3442400(1-10)Online publication date: 9-Feb-2021
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3442391.3442400
Greiner SWestfechtel B(2021)On Preserving Variability Consistency in Multiple ModelsProceedings of the 15th International Working Conference on Variability Modelling of Software-Intensive Systems10.1145/3442391.3442399(1-10)Online publication date: 9-Feb-2021
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3442391.3442399
Show More Cited By

View Options

Get Access

Login options

Check if you have access through your login credentials or your institution to get full access on this article.

Full Access

Get this Publication

View options

PDF

View or Download as a PDF file.

eReader

View online with eReader.

Media

Figures

Other

Tables

View Table of Contents