TY - GEN
T1 - A Conceptual Model for Unifying Variability in Space and Time
AU - Ananieva, Sofia
AU - Greiner, Sandra
AU - Kühn, Thomas
AU - Krüger, Jacob
AU - Linsbauer, Lukas
AU - Grüner, Sten
AU - Kehrer, Timo
AU - Klare, Heiko
AU - Koziolek, Anne
AU - Lönn, Henrik
AU - Krieter, Sebastian
AU - Seidl, Christoph
AU - Ramesh, S.
AU - Reussner, Ralf
AU - Westfechtel, Bernhard
PY - 2020/10
Y1 - 2020/10
N2 - Software engineering faces the challenge of developing and maintaining systems that are highly variable in space (concurrent variations of the system at a single point in time) and time (sequential variations of the system due to its evolution). Recent research aims to address this need by managing variability in space and time simultaneously. However, such research often relies on nonuniform terminologies and a varying understanding of concepts, as it originates from different communities: software product-line engineering and software configuration management. These issues complicate the communication and comprehension of the concepts involved, impeding the development of techniques to unify variability in space and time. To tackle this problem, we performed an iterative, expert-driven analysis of existing tools to derive the first conceptual model that integrates and unifies terminologies and concepts of both dimensions of variability. In this paper, we present the unification process of concepts for variability in space and time, and the resulting conceptual model itself. We show that the conceptual model achieves high coverage and that its concepts are of appropriate granularity with respect to the tools for managing variability in space, time, or both that we considered. The conceptual model provides a well-defined, uniform terminology that empowers researchers and developers to compare their work, clarifies communication, and prevents redundant developments.
AB - Software engineering faces the challenge of developing and maintaining systems that are highly variable in space (concurrent variations of the system at a single point in time) and time (sequential variations of the system due to its evolution). Recent research aims to address this need by managing variability in space and time simultaneously. However, such research often relies on nonuniform terminologies and a varying understanding of concepts, as it originates from different communities: software product-line engineering and software configuration management. These issues complicate the communication and comprehension of the concepts involved, impeding the development of techniques to unify variability in space and time. To tackle this problem, we performed an iterative, expert-driven analysis of existing tools to derive the first conceptual model that integrates and unifies terminologies and concepts of both dimensions of variability. In this paper, we present the unification process of concepts for variability in space and time, and the resulting conceptual model itself. We show that the conceptual model achieves high coverage and that its concepts are of appropriate granularity with respect to the tools for managing variability in space, time, or both that we considered. The conceptual model provides a well-defined, uniform terminology that empowers researchers and developers to compare their work, clarifies communication, and prevents redundant developments.
KW - Variability Management
KW - Software Product-Line Engineering
KW - Software Configuration Management
KW - Conceptual Model
KW - System Evolution
KW - Variability Management
KW - Software Product-Line Engineering
KW - Software Configuration Management
KW - Conceptual Model
KW - System Evolution
U2 - 10.1145/3382025.3414955
DO - 10.1145/3382025.3414955
M3 - Article in proceedings
BT - Proceedings of the 24th ACM International Systems and Software Product Line Conference
PB - Association for Computing Machinery
ER -