A Conceptual Model for Unifying Variability in Space and Time

Sofia Ananieva, Sandra Greiner, Thomas Kühn, Jacob Krüger, Lukas Linsbauer, Sten Grüner, Timo Kehrer, Heiko Klare, Anne Koziolek, Henrik Lönn, Sebastian Krieter, Christoph Seidl, S. Ramesh, Ralf H. Reussner, Bernhard Westfechtel

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingConference contributionAcademicpeer-review

16 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

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.
Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationProceedings of the 24th ACM Conference on Systems and Software Product Line, SPLC 2020
EditorsShaukat Ali, Wesley K.G. Assuncao, Thorsten Berger, Carlos Cetina, Philippe Collet, Jose Galindo, Paul Gazzillo, Lukas Linsbauer, Roberto Erick Lopez-Herrejon, Sarah Nadi, Sandro Schulze, Salvador Trujillo
PublisherAssociation for Computing Machinery, Inc.
Pages148-158
Number of pages11
ISBN (Electronic)9781450375696
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 19 Oct 2020

Publication series

NameACM International Conference Proceeding Series

Bibliographical note

DBLP License: DBLP's bibliographic metadata records provided through http://dblp.org/ are distributed under a Creative Commons CC0 1.0 Universal Public Domain Dedication. Although the bibliographic metadata records are provided consistent with CC0 1.0 Dedication, the content described by the metadata records is not. Content may be subject to copyright, rights of privacy, rights of publicity and other restrictions.

Keywords

  • Revision Management
  • Product Lines
  • Variability
  • Version Control
  • revision management
  • version control
  • product lines
  • variability

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