An architecture process maturity model of software product line engineering

Software architecture has been a key research area in the software engineering community due to its significant role in creating high-quality software. The trend of developing product lines rather than single products has made the software product line a viable option in the industry. Software product line architecture (SPLA) is regarded as one of the crucial components in the product lines, since all of the resulting products share this common architecture. The increased popularity of software product lines demands a process maturity evaluation methodology. Consequently, this paper presents an architecture process maturity model for software product line engineering to evaluate the current maturity of the product line architecture development process in an organization. Assessment questionnaires and a rating methodology comprise the framework of this model. The objective of the questionnaires is to collect information about the SPLA development process. Thus, in general this work contributes towards the establishment of a comprehensive and unified strategy for the process maturity evaluation of software product line engineering. Furthermore, we conducted two case studies and reported the assessment results, which show the maturity of the architecture development process in two organizations.     

面向领域的软件开发的研究

传统的面向应用的软件开发模式不能迅速响应用户的需求,提出了一种大规模生产软件产品的构架,通过开发面向特定领域的软件产品族,复用产品族中的公共资产库,采用定制机制的方法开发面向用户的应用程序。并结合一个具体的例子详细说明如何使用此方法开发电信领域的网管系统构架及具体应用系统。     

Software performance tuning of software product family architectures: Two case studies in the real-time embedded systems domain

Software performance is an important non-functional quality attribute and software performance evaluation is an essential activity in the software development process. Especially in embedded real-time systems, software design and evaluation are driven by the needs to optimize the limited resources, to respect time deadlines and, at the same time, to produce the best experience for end-users. Software product family architectures add additional requirements to the evaluation process. In this case, the evaluation includes the analysis of the optimizations and tradeoffs for the whole products in the family. Performance evaluation of software product family architectures requires knowledge and a clear understanding of different domains: software architecture assessments, software performance and software product family architecture. We have used a scenario-driven approach to evaluate performance and dynamic memory management efficiency in one Nokia software product family architecture. In this paper we present two case studies. Furthermore, we discuss the implications and tradeoffs of software performance against evolvability and maintenability in software product family architectures.     

基于GRoundTram的软件产品线设计模型的同步方法

领域设计模型与应用系统设计模型是软件产品线开发与定制阶段的重要产物。在产品线的生命周期中,为 了保证这两个模型之间的一致性,需要采用自动化或半自动化的手段实现模型之间的同步。针对该问题,提出了一种 基于GRoundTram的软件产品线设计模型的同步方法,称为SPLSync-GRoundTram。该方法将领域设计模型与应用 系统设计模型之间的同步问题转换为基于图的模型双向变换问题,并使用GRound"hram实现自动化的同步操作。 出了该模型同步方法的具体操作步骤,并通过一个“网上书城”的设计模型实例展示其有效性。     

An organizational maturity model of software product line engineering

Software product line engineering is an inter-disciplinary concept. It spans the dimensions of business, architecture, process, and the organization. Some of the potential benefits of this approach include cost reduction, improvements in product quality and a decrease in product development time. The increasing popularity of software product line engineering in the software industry necessitates a process maturity evaluation methodology. Accordingly, this paper presents an organizational maturity model of software product line engineering for evaluating the maturity of organizational dimension. The model assumes that organizational theories, behavior, and management play a critical role in the institutionalization of software product line engineering within an organization. Assessment questionnaires and a rating methodology comprise the framework of this model. The objective and design of the questionnaires are to collect information about the software product line engineering process from the dual perspectives of organizational behavior and management. Furthermore, we conducted two case studies and reported the assessment results using the organizational maturity model presented in this paper.     

A business maturity model of software product line engineering

In the recent past, software product line engineering has become one of the most promising practices in software industry with the potential to substantially increase the software development productivity. Software product line engineering approach spans the dimensions of business, architecture, software engineering process and organization. The increasing popularity of software product line engineering in the software industry necessitates a process maturity evaluation methodology. Accordingly, this paper presents a business maturity model of software product line, which is a methodology to evaluate the current maturity of the business dimension of a software product line in an organization. This model examines the coordination between product line engineering and the business aspects of software product line. It evaluates the maturity of the business dimension of software product line as a function of how a set of business practices are aligned with product line engineering in an organization. Using the model presented in this paper, we conducted two case studies and reported the assessment results. This research contributes towards establishing a comprehensive and unified strategy for a process maturity evaluation of software product lines.     

在软件企业中实施小组软件过程

软件企业在追求改进产品交付质量、降低软件开发成本、提高组织生产效率的三大商业目标时,已经认识到不断改进和完善自身软件过程、增强过程能力、实现成熟软件过程的必要性和迫切性。在此过程中,所面临的首要问题是如何根据企业自身情况建立或整理出一套良好的软件过程,并对此加以明确定义。该文结合所在项目组进行的小组软件过程实践,对TSP实施过程中可能遇到的一些共性问题进行了深入的分析,并提出相应的解决方案以及具体的实施策略和主要步骤。     

基于体系结构的应用系统族开发方法的研究

对于建筑领域管理系统这样具有共同特性的一组应用系统的开发,如果没有系统性重用的方法,不仅会造成软件资产的大量浪费,而且也使系统的成本和开发周期大大增加。为解决上述问题,该文提出了一套以体系结构为中心的工程化软件开发方法,该方法利用软件产品线开发的思想,将软件产品线工程和应用工程两种开发活动集成到一起,通过族体系结构的重用实现系统性重用。     

基于GRASP的软件维护过程仿真研究

软件维护问题已经日益成为人们关注的焦点,除软件产品本身固有因素(如软件维护性)影响软件维护工作量外,软件维护过程也对它有着重要的影响,一个资源配置合理的维护过程能够提高维护效率,并降低维护费用.文中提出了一个用于对软件维护过程运行进行建模和评估的方法,它能够提高一个维护组织的过程成熟度和效率.该方法建立了基于排队网络软件维护过程模型,并通过GRASP仿真来确定它的运行情况,可以对多种过程方案选择进行仿真,从而避免了实际系统运行实验的风险,仿真结果表明,该方法切实有效,它为软件维护过程的分析及过程改进提供了一个可行的方法.     

Key activities for product derivation in software product lines

More and more organizations adopt software product lines to leverage extensive reuse and deliver a multitude of benefits such as increased quality and productivity and a decrease in cost and time-to-market of their software development. When compared to the vast amount of research on developing product lines, relatively little work has been dedicated to the actual use of product lines to derive individual products, i.e., the process of product derivation. Existing approaches to product derivation have been developed independently for different aims and purposes. While the definition of a general approach applicable to every domain may not be possible, it would be interesting for researchers and practitioners to know which activities are common in existing approaches, i.e., what are the key activities in product derivation. In this paper we report on how we compared two product derivation approaches developed by the authors in two different, independent research projects. Both approaches independently sought to identify product derivation activities, one through a process reference model and the other through a tool-supported derivation approach. Both approaches have been developed and validated in research industry collaborations with different companies. Through the comparison of the approaches we identify key product derivation activities. We illustrate the activities’ importance with examples from industry collaborations. To further validate the activities, we analyze three existing product derivation approaches for their support for these activities. The validation provides evidence that the identified activities are relevant to product derivation and we thus conclude that they should be considered (e.g., as a checklist) when developing or evaluating a product derivation approach.     

Software product lines: a case study

A software product line is a family of products that share common features to meet the needs of a market area. Systematic processes have been developed to dramatically reduce the cost of a product line. Such product‐line engineering processes have proven practical and effective in industrial use, but are not widely understood. The Family‐Oriented Abstraction, Specification and Translation (FAST) process has been used successfully at Lucent Technologies in over 25 domains, providing productivity improvements of as much as four to one. In this paper, we show how to use FAST to document precisely the key abstractions in a domain, exploit design patterns in a generic product‐line architecture, generate documentation and Java code, and automate testing to reduce costs. The paper is based on a detailed case study covering all aspects from domain analysis through testing. Copyright © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

一种面向产品族的XBOM建模方法

基于产品族的设计是实现大批量定制生产的关键技术. 其目标是以尽可能快的速度和尽可能低的成本为客户提供满足其个性化、多样化需求的产品.面向产品族的XBOM给出了生产过程中各BOM视图之间映射关系,保证了数据的一致性.为实现XBOM支持变型设计,本文引入产品族架构理论,建立覆盖功能域、技术域与物理域的广义XBOM,形成面向产品族的单一物料数据源;并给出了基于广义XBOM的各类型BOM的生成算法;最后介绍了相关的软件系统设计及其应用.     

What is a software process?

For an industrial product with more than a minimal complexity the only reasonable way to ensure its quality is to guarantee that it is produced via a quality process. Industrial maturity demonstrates itself in the ability to separate the product from its development process, that is separating the WHAT from the HOW. This separation allows to analyze and certify (!) the development process. Especially for software development the need for certified development processes (ISO 9000, ISO 12207) is pressing. In this presentation we explore some of the basic concepts underlying the notion of a software process and some of their implications.     

Using search theory to determine an applications selection strategy

The literature on software selection focuses mainly on identifying and ensuring the evaluation of those attributes of alternative commercial software products relevant to meeting the functional and non-functional requirements of the acquiring organisation. Once these attributes are determined, however, the firm acquiring the product must still decide on its selection strategy: which products should be evaluated, in what order, and at what point is it no longer beneficial to continue to evaluate additional products. We applied search theory to solve this problem of determining the selection strategy. This resulted in an optimal strategy but changes the way we view and manage software acquisition. In particular, the approach suggested that software acquisition may be better managed as an ongoing process instead of as a project with a distinct start and end. The approach formally incorporated the strategic importance of the application to the firm in determining the optimal strategy, a consideration that does not appear in the normal requirements-based approach to software selection.     

统计过程控制方法在软件测试过程分析中的应用

软件测试过程是软件生命周期过程的一个重要组成部分,测试工作的好坏对软件产品的整体质量有直接的影响。文章通过使用统计过程控制方法对一个典型软件测试过程的分析,指出了测试过程、开发过程和质量监控工具中存在的问题及其改进的方向。     

Validating a model-driven software architecture evaluation and improvement method: A family of experiments

ContextSoftware architectures should be evaluated during the early stages of software development in order to verify whether the non-functional requirements (NFRs) of the product can be fulfilled. This activity is even more crucial in software product line (SPL) development, since it is also necessary to identify whether the NFRs of a particular product can be achieved by exercising the variation mechanisms provided by the product line architecture or whether additional transformations are required. These issues have motivated us to propose QuaDAI, a method for the derivation, evaluation and improvement of software architectures in model-driven SPL development.ObjectiveWe present in this paper the results of a family of four experiments carried out to empirically validate the evaluation and improvement strategy of QuaDAI.MethodThe family of experiments was carried out by 92 participants: Computer Science Master’s and undergraduate students from Spain and Italy. The goal was to compare the effectiveness, efficiency, perceived ease of use, perceived usefulness and intention to use with regard to participants using the evaluation and improvement strategy of QuaDAI as opposed to the Architecture Tradeoff Analysis Method (ATAM).ResultsThe main result was that the participants produced their best results when applying QuaDAI, signifying that the participants obtained architectures with better values for the NFRs faster, and that they found the method easier to use, more useful and more likely to be used. The results of the meta-analysis carried out to aggregate the results obtained in the individual experiments also confirmed these results.ConclusionsThe results support the hypothesis that QuaDAI would achieve better results than ATAM in the experiments and that QuaDAI can be considered as a promising approach with which to perform architectural evaluations that occur after the product architecture derivation in model-driven SPL development processes when carried out by novice software evaluators.     

基于UML用例图的软件产品线需求建模方法

软件产品线方法是一种面向特定领域的、大规模、大粒度的软件复用技术。明确建模和描述软件产品线需求是软件产品线开发的关键问题之一。而传统的UML用例图等方法不足以完整描述产品线需求,特别是其变化性。通过分析软件产品线开发过程和软件产品线需求建模的特殊性,采用扩展UML用例图标签的方法,实现对软件产品线需求的明确描述。以网络图书销售软件产品线为例,进行具体说明。     

Risk of using pirated software and its impact on software protection strategies

The software protection strategy of software developer and the inherent risk to end user in using pirated software are two major factors that affect a user's decision on whether to purchase or pirate a software product. This paper analyzes the optimal protection strategy for software developer in horizontally and vertically differentiated markets. We find that the implementation cost of software protection constitutes the primary factor for software developers to determine their software protection strategies. However, in a vertically differentiated market, the lower quality product should always adopt a non-protection strategy, regardless of the protection implementation cost. In other cases, protection would only be optimal if the protection implementation cost to the software developer is relatively small. These findings are consistent with anecdotal evidence.     

Representing variability in a family of MRI scanners

Promoting software reuse is probably the most promising approach to the cost‐effective development and evolution of quality software. An example of reuse is the successful adoption of software product families in industry. In a product family context, software architects anticipate product variation and design architectures that support product derivation in both space (multiple contexts) and time (changing contexts). Product derivation is based on the concept of variability: a single architecture and a set of components support a family of products. Modern software product families need to support increasing amounts of variability, leading to a situation where variability engineering becomes of primary concern. Variability is often introduced as an ‘add‐on’ to the system without taking the consequences for more than one lifecycle phase such as design or architecture into account. This paper (1) suggests a Variability Categorization and Classification Model (VCCM) for representing variability in the software lifecycle and (2) discusses a case study of a large‐scale software product family of Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) scanners developed by Philips Medical Systems. The study illustrates how variability can be made an integral part of system development at different levels of abstraction. VCCM has been applied to the scanner family as an analysis tool. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A framework for evaluating specification methods for reactivesystems-experience report

Numerous formal specification methods for reactive systems have been proposed in the literature. Because the significant differences between the methods are hard to determine, choosing the best method for a particular application can be difficult. We have applied several different methods, including Modechart, VFSM, ESTEREL, Basic LOTOS, Z, SDL, and C, to an application problem encountered in the design of software for AT&T's 5ESS telephone switching system. We have developed a set of criteria for evaluating and comparing the different specification methods. We argue that the evaluation of a method must take into account not only academic concerns, but also the maturity of the method, its compatibility with the existing software development process and system execution environment, and its suitability for the chosen application domain