Quality Evaluation of the Features Model in Lines of Software Products Using Measures

• Carla I. M. Bezerra UFC
• José Maria Monteiro UFC
• Rossana M. C. Andrade UFC

DOI: https://doi.org/10.5753/sbqs.2013.15272

Abstract

In Software Product Lines (SPL), the quality evaluation is a critical factor, once an error in the line can spread to various other products. While a features model is one of the main artifacts in an SPL, one of the current strategies to assess the quality consists in using some measures to this evaluation. So, this work focuses on proposing a set of measures to evaluate the quality of the features model of an SPL. First, the measures are identified from a broad bibliographic review and, then, their detailed specification is proposed. These measures are then used to evaluate the quality of the features model of Mobline, a SPL for mobile and context aware applications.

Keywords: Quality Assessment, Software Product Lines, Feature Model

References

Bagheri, E.; Gasevic, D. (2011) “Assessing the maintainability of software product line feature models using structural metrics”. Software Quality Journal, 2011 – Springer.

Bartholdt, J.; Medak, M. e Oberhauser, R. (2009) “Integrating Quality Modeling with Feature Modeling in Software Product Lines”. ICSEA '09. Fourth International Conference on Software Engineering Advances.

Benavides, D.; Segura, S.; Trinidad, P.; Ruiz-Cortés; A. (2007) “FAMA: Tooling a Framework for the automated analysis of feature models”. In 1st Internacional Workshop on Variability Modelling of Software Intensive Systems, 2007, pp.129-134.

Bosch, J. (2000) “Design and use of software architectures: adopting and evolving a product line approach”. ACM Press/Addison- Wesley Publishing Co., USA.

Etxeberria, L. e Sagardui, G. (2005) “Product-line architecture: New issues for evaluation”. In J. H. Obbink and K. Pohl, editors, 9th International Conference on Software Product Lines, SPLC, Proceedings, volume 3714 of Lectures Notes in Computer Science, pages 174–185. Springer.

Etxeberria, L. e Sagardui, G. (2008a) “Variability Driven Quality Evaluation in Software Product Lines,” in Proceedings of 12th International Software Product Line Conference, pp. 243-252.

Etxeberria, L. e Sagardui, G. (2008b) “Evaluation of quality attribute variability in software product families.” in Proceedings of the 15th Annual IEEE International Conference and Workshop on the Engineering of Computer Based Systems, pp. 255-264. IEEE Standard for a Software Quality Metrics Methodology IEEE Std. 1061- 1998. ISO/IEC 9126-1 International Standard: Software engineering - Product quality. Part 1: Quality model, 2003.

ISO / IEC 25000: 2005. Software Engineering. Software product Quality Requirements and Evaluation (SQuaRE).

Kang, K. C.; Cohen, S. G.; Hess, J. A.; Novak, W. E. e Peterson, A. S. (1990) “Feature-Oriented Domain Analysis (FODA) Feasibility Study,” Carnegie-Mellon University Software Engineering Institute, Tech. Rep.

Kim, T.; Ko, I. Y.; Kang, S.W.; Lee, D. H. (2008) “Extending ATAM to assess product line architecture”. In 8th IEEE International Conference on Computer and Information Technology, pp. 790-797.

Marinho, F.; Costa, A.; Lima, F.; Neto, J.; Filho, J.; Rocha, L.; Dantas, V.; Andrade, R.; Teixeira, E.; Werner, C. (2010) “An architecture proposal for nested software product lines in the domain of mobile and context-aware applications”. In: Proceedings of the 2010 Fourth Brazilian Symposium on Software Components, Architectures and Reuse, 2010. (SBCARS ’10), p. 51–60. ISBN 978-0-7695-4259-1.

Matinlassi, M.; Niemelä, E., Dobrica, L. (2002) “Quality-driven architecture design and quality analysis method: A revolutionary initiation approach to a product line architecture”. Technical Report VTT-PUBS-456, VTT.

Mello, R. M. ; Teixeira, E. N. ; Schots, M. ; Werner, C. M. L. ; Travassos, G. H. (2012) “Checklist-based Inspection Technique for Feature Models Review”. In: VI Simpósio Brasileiro de Componentes, Arquiteturas e Reutilização de Software, 2012, Natal, v. 3. p. 139-148.

Mendonca, M., Branco, M. e Cowan, D. (2009) “S.P.L.O.T. - Software Product Lines Online Tools”. In Companion to the 24th ACM SIGPLAN International Conference on Object-Oriented Programming, Systems, Languages, and Applications, OOPSLA, Orlando, Florida, USA

Mobiline. Uma Linha de Produto de Software Móvel e Sensível ao Contexto. 2012. Disponível em http://mobiline.great.ufc.br/. Último acesso em março de 2013.

Montagud, S. e Abrahão. S. (2009a) Gathering Current Knowledge about Quality Evaluation in Software Product Lines. Proceedings of the 13th International Software Product Line Conference (SPLC), San Francisco, USA, 2009.

Montagud, S.; Abrahão, S. (2009b). A SQuaRE-bassed quality evaluation method for software product lines. Master’s thesis, December 2009 (in Spanish).

Montagud, S.; Abrahão, S. e Insfran, E. (2011) “A systematic review of quality attributes and measures for software product lines”. Software Quality Journal, 2011 – Springer.

Oliveira, R. F. (2006) Formalização e Verificação de Consistência na Representação de Variabilidades, Dissertação de M.Sc., COPPE Sistemas, UFRJ, Rio de Janeiro, Brasil.

Oliveira, E. A. Jr., Gimenes, I. M. S., & Maldonado, J. C. (2008). A metric suite to support so product line architectures. In XXXIV Conferncia Latinoamericana de Informtica (CLEI 2008).

Olumofin, F. G. e Mišic, V. B. (2007) “A holistic architecture assessment method for software product lines”. Information and Software Technology 49, pp. 309-323.

Souza, I; Oliveira, P. R.; Gomes, G; Almeida, E. S. (2012) “On the Relationship between Inspection and Evolution in Software Product Lines: An Exploratory Study.” 26th Brazilian Symposium on Software Engineering (SBES), Natal, Brazil.

Tawhid, R. e Petriu, D. C. (2011) “Automatic Derivation of a Product Performance Model from a Software Product Line Model”. SPLC '11 Proceedings of the 15th International Software Product Line Conference.

Tessier, P.; Gérard, S.; Terrier, F. e Geib, J. (2005) ‘‘Using variation propagation for model-driven management of a system family.’’ In Software Product Lines, pp. 222–233.

Thiel, S. (2002) “On the definition of a framework for an architecting process supporting product family development”. In 4th International Workshop on Software Product-Family Engineering, Springer-Verlag, London, UK, 2002, pp.125–142.

Villela, K.; Arif, T; Zanardini, D. (2012) “Towards product configuration taking into account quality concerns”. SPLC '12 Proceedings of the 16th International Software Product Line Conference - Volume 2, Pages 82-90.

Zhang, H.; Jarzabek, S. e Yang, B. (2003) “Quality Prediction and Assessment for Product Lines,” in CAiSE 2003, LNCS 2681, pp. 681-695.

Zhang, T.; Deng, L.; Wu, J.; Zhou, Q. e Ma, C. (2008) “Some metrics for accessing quality of product line architecture”. In CSSE’08: Proceedings of the 2008 International Conference on Computer Science and Software Engineering (pp. 500–503). Washington, DC: IEEE Computer Society.