A methodologcal framework to design software factories for software product lines

Abstract

Over the past decade, developers of Software Product Line (SPL) tools have grap-
pled with the task of implementing various variability requirements and providing
support for SPL engineering activities needed in emerging domains. Despite several
tools exist, few works resolve SPL process for both problem and solution space. In
fact, nowadays existing SPL tools are less efficient to generate configurations of prod-
ucts based on some criteria like Non-Functional Requirements (NFRs). Hence, the
lack of mature tool support is one of the main reasons that make the industry to be
hesitant to consider SPL approaches. Combining some of the tools can partly solve
the problem for simple SPL process but it is unable to deal with complex product
lines.
Due to these reasons, the current thesis proposes a methodological framework that
overcomes the limits of existing tools and holds all the phases and activities from the
requirement design till the product derivation. The Bespoke method gets together
both Model Driven Engineering (MDE) and SPL fields and aims to cover the overall
product generation strategies and to guide the engineer in deriving the final system
applications. The aim of the method is to design a software factory and its interest
consists in providing a methodological accompaniment at each stage, documenting all
the points of choice, and automating all the processes that are relevant. This thesis
presents the architecture of the proposed framework as well as the process performed
from the domain modeling till obtaining the final product assets.

Date of Award	26 Sept 2023
Original language	English
Awarding Institution	University of Namur
Sponsors	University of Namur
Supervisor	Vincent Englebert (Supervisor), Benoit Vanderose (President), Christophe Ponsard (Jury), Kim Mens (Jury), Anthony Cleve (Jury) & Gilles Perrouin (Jury)