A Generic Framework for Configuration Management of SPL and Controlling Evolution of Complex Software Products

Abstract

Efficient configuration management system is crucial for the success of any software product line (SPL). Due to ever changing needs of customers, SPL undergoes constant changes that are to be tracked in real time. In the context of customer-driven development, anticipation and change management are to be given paramount importance. It demands implementation of software variability that drives home changed, extended and customized configurations besides economy at scale. Moreover, the emergence of distributed technologies, the unprecedented growth of component based, serviceoriented systems throw ever increasing challenges to software product line configuration management. Derivation of a new product is a dynamic process in software product line that should consider functionality and quality attributes. Very few approaches are found on configuration management (CM) of SPL though CM is enough matured for traditional products. They are tailor made and inadequate to provide a general solution. Stated differently, a comprehensive approach for SPL configuration management and product derivation is still to be desired. In this paper, we proposed a framework that guides in doing so besides helping in SPL definitions in generic way. Our framework facilitates SPL configuration management and product derivation based on critical path analysis, weight computation and feedback. We proposed two algorithms namely Quality Driven Product Derivation (QDPD) and Composition Analysis algorithm for generating satisfied compositions and to find best possible composition respectively. The usage of weights and critical path analysis improves quality of product derivation. The framework is extensible and flexible thus it can be leveraged with variability-aware design patterns and ontology. We built a prototype that demonstrates the proof of concept. We tested our approach with Dr. School product line. The results reveal that the framework supports configuration management of SPL and derivation of high quality product in the product line. We evaluated results with ground truth to establish significance of our implementation