TY - BOOK
T1 - A strategy for analysing product line software architectures
AU - Dobrica, Liliana
AU - Niemelä, Eila
N1 - Project code: E0SU00132
PY - 2000
Y1 - 2000
N2 - The purpose of the architecture evaluation of a software
system is to analyze the architecture to identify
potential risks and to verify that the quality
requirements have been addressed in the design. This
research report addresses the issue of how to perform an
analysis of software product line architectures.
Throughout the chapters we try to present a way of
thinking founded on analysis at the architecture level of
the quality attributes, with the purpose to initiate and
maintain a software product line considering the quality
as the main driver in the product line development. The
analysis strategy is exemplified with a spectrometer
controller product line, a case study where the product
line is initiated in a revolutionary style, such that the
product line architecture and its components are
elaborated to match the requirements of all the expected
product line members.
In this report, we present our original contributions in
developing this significant and, in the same time, new
research domain. In order to be able to discuss an
analysis strategy for a product line architecture, it is
a considerable advantage to have a good knowledge of the
state of art and practice in the software architecture
domain. One of our contributions is to extract the main
concepts that are common to software architectures and to
present what is specific for the product line approach in
software development. The study in the first part of the
report gathers together, for the first time to our
knowledge, all of the important published software
architecture analysis methods and attempts to compare
them. This survey shows the state of the research at this
moment, in this domain, by presenting and discussing
eight of the most representative architecture analysis
methods. The study represents a step towards defining a
general product line architecture analysis strategy. In
practice, we simplify our analysis approach and the last
part of this report focuses on our experiences with the
product line architecture analysis of the spectrometer
controller PL.
AB - The purpose of the architecture evaluation of a software
system is to analyze the architecture to identify
potential risks and to verify that the quality
requirements have been addressed in the design. This
research report addresses the issue of how to perform an
analysis of software product line architectures.
Throughout the chapters we try to present a way of
thinking founded on analysis at the architecture level of
the quality attributes, with the purpose to initiate and
maintain a software product line considering the quality
as the main driver in the product line development. The
analysis strategy is exemplified with a spectrometer
controller product line, a case study where the product
line is initiated in a revolutionary style, such that the
product line architecture and its components are
elaborated to match the requirements of all the expected
product line members.
In this report, we present our original contributions in
developing this significant and, in the same time, new
research domain. In order to be able to discuss an
analysis strategy for a product line architecture, it is
a considerable advantage to have a good knowledge of the
state of art and practice in the software architecture
domain. One of our contributions is to extract the main
concepts that are common to software architectures and to
present what is specific for the product line approach in
software development. The study in the first part of the
report gathers together, for the first time to our
knowledge, all of the important published software
architecture analysis methods and attempts to compare
them. This survey shows the state of the research at this
moment, in this domain, by presenting and discussing
eight of the most representative architecture analysis
methods. The study represents a step towards defining a
general product line architecture analysis strategy. In
practice, we simplify our analysis approach and the last
part of this report focuses on our experiences with the
product line architecture analysis of the spectrometer
controller PL.
KW - software product line
KW - analysis techniques and methods
KW - scenarios
KW - quality attributes
KW - spectrometer controller
KW - software architecture
M3 - Report
SN - 951-38-5598-8
T3 - VTT Publications
BT - A strategy for analysing product line software architectures
PB - VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland
CY - Espoo
ER -