Reasoning about Product-Line Evolution using Complex Feature Model Differences

Abstract

In this work, we report about research results on the Reasoning about Product-Line Evo- lution using Complex Feature Model Differences, published in [Bu ̈15]. A (software) product-line constitutes a long-term investment and, therefore, has to undergo continuous evolution to meet con- stantly changing requirements. Initially, product-line evolution leads to changes of the variability model, typically a feature model, due to its central role in the product-line paradigm. Thus, product- line engineers are often faced with the problems that (1) feature models are changed ad-hoc without proper documentation, and (2) the semantic impact of changes is unclear. We propose a comprehen- sive approach to tackle both challenges. For (1), our approach compares the old and new version of the diagram representation of a feature model and specifies the changes using edit operations on feature diagrams. For (2), we propose a novel approach for reasoning about the semantic impact of diagram changes. We present a set of edit operations on feature diagrams, where complex operations are primarily derived from evolution scenarios observed in a real-world case study. We demonstrate the applicability of our approach with respect to the case study, and evaluate its scalability concern- ing experimental data sets.