Model-based Product Line Engineering Research Articles

Decision‐Driven Product Development

ABSTRACTProduct line engineering (PLE) is the engineering and management of a group of related products using a shared set of assets and a means of design and manufacturing. PLE can include systems, software, and assets and involves all aspects of engineering including electrical, electronic, mechanical, and chemical, just to name a few. Engineers normally consider PLE after the product has evolved and complexity becomes too much to manage. Leveraging PLE from the very beginning will identify cost savings and commonality and provide a natural means for product evolution. Orthogonal variability modeling (OVM) provides a natural decision set allowing engineers to perform trade‐offs for specific customers and guide system development along the most effective route. Using automotive examples, this paper will describe model‐based product line engineering (MB‐PLE), the process for creating product lines, and the benefits of this approach as applicable to the military ground vehicle domain. Finally, it will show how the adoption of MB‐PLE early in the development life cycle provides more benefits without the potential disruption and reengineering that can occur when engineers adopt it later in the life cycle.

Model‐based Product Line Engineering–Enabling Product Families with Variants

ABSTRACTProduct Lines are a group of related products manufactured or produced within or between collaborating organizations. Effectively managing a product line requires understanding the similarities and differences between products, optimizing the development life cycle to leverage the similarities, and concentrating development on the differences. ISO 26550:2013 Software & Systems Engineering–Reference Model for Product Line Management & Engineering provides a standard for defining similarities, differences, and the choices between them. Model‐Based Systems and Software Engineering (MBSE) using the Systems Modeling Language (SysML) and the Unified Modeling Language (UML) provides a means of modeling systems and software. Bringing the two together allows users to model product lines in industry standard formats. These standards provide Model‐Based Product Line Engineering (MB‐PLE). Combining these with an execution engine means product models can be created for specific products, whilst maintaining the original product line model, providing significant return on investment (ROI) for aerospace companies.

Model‐based Product Line Engineering ‐‐ Enabling Product Families with Variants

AbstractProduct Lines are a group of related products manufactured or produced within or between collaborating organizations. To effectively manage a product line, one needs to understand both the similarities and differences between the different products and optimize the development lifecycle to leverage the similarities, and concentrate development on the differences. ISO 26550:2013 Software & Systems Engineering – Reference Model for Product Line Management & Engineering provides a standard for defining these similarities and differences as well as the choices between them. Model‐Based Systems and Software Engineering (MBSE) using the Systems Modeling Language (SysML) and the Unified Modeling Language (UML) provide a means of modeling systems and software. Bringing the two together allows users to model product lines in industry standard formats. These standards provide Model‐Based Product Line Engineering (MB‐PLE). Combining these with an execution engine means that product models can be created for specific products, whilst maintaining the original product line model. This provides significant ROI for aerospace companies.

Simulating evolution in model-based product line engineering

Context Numerous approaches are available for modeling product lines and their variability. However, the long-term impacts of model-based development on maintenance effort and model complexity can hardly be investigated due to a lack of empirical data. Conducting empirical research in product line engineering is difficult as companies are typically reluctant to provide access to data from their product lines. Also, many benefits of product lines can be measured only in longitudinal studies, which are difficult to perform in most environments. Objective In this paper, we thus aim to explore the benefit of simulation to investigate the evolution of model-based product lines. Method We present a simulation approach for exploring the effects of product line evolution on model complexity and maintenance effort. Our simulation considers characteristics of product lines (e.g., size, dependencies in models) and we experiment with different evolution profiles (e.g., technical refactoring vs. placement of new products). Results We apply the approach in a simulation experiment that uses data from real-world product lines from the domain of industrial automation systems to demonstrate its feasibility. Conclusion Our results demonstrate that simulation contributes to understanding the effects of maintenance and evolution in model-based product lines.