A Self-Adaptation Mechanism for Variability Management in Dynamic Software Product Lines

• Rafael Lima UFC
• Carla Bezerra UFC
• Ivan Machado UFBA

Resumo

Variability management is crucial for companies that need to offer multiple product variants quickly. However, the increasing complexity of software-intensive systems has made variability management increasingly challenging. This challenge is compounded by the need for such systems to run continuously and adapt to changes in the environment and user needs at runtime. To address this challenge, Dynamic Software Product Line (DSPL) Engineering has emerged as a strategy for managing variability in complex and dynamic environments. The key challenge in DSPL engineering is to manage product configurations at runtime by detecting changes in the context and adapting accordingly. In this paper, we propose an adaptation mechanism for DSPL feature models that supports dynamic variability and is based on the MAPE-K model. The mechanism transforms feature model constraints into rules that enable the activation of each feature and annotates contexts in the corresponding features to be activated when changes occur. We have implemented the mechanism in the DyMMer 2.0 modeling tool and evaluated its performance using various DSPL feature models. Additionally, we performed a preliminary evaluation with a proof-of-concept study with an expert to assess its practical usage. Our results demonstrate the effectiveness and practicality of the proposed mechanism in managing variability in complex and dynamic environments.

Palavras-chave: variability management, feature model, dynamic software product line