Arnd Schnieders

Variability mechanism centric process family architectures

In this paper we describe a variability mechanism centric approach for the representation of process family architectures, which act as the major blueprint for the implementation of families of process oriented software in process family engineering. We therefore analyze the role of variability mechanisms in process family architectures and define a set of variability mechanisms for process family architectures represented as a UML activity diagram. The variability mechanism centric approach for process family architecture modeling allows for representing explicitly and intuitively the variability in a process family architecture and supports the effective reuse of process family architecture parts for the process family members. Moreover, it allows to model the implementation of variability in the process family and thus to take into account the influence of the variability implementation on the non-functional properties of the process family during process family architecture design. Our approach thus supports a more model-driven variability implementation in process family engineering

Variability Modeling and Product Derivation in E-Business Process Families

In this paper we present our findings in the area of process family architectures for e-business systems, described as variant-rich process models in the Business Process Modeling Notation (BPMN). We moreover address product derivation issues specific to process family engineering.

Activity Diagram Based Process Family Architectures for Enterprise Application Families

Today, enterprise software vendors typically sell their enterprise applications in many different variants, which allows for a better market penetration regarding diverging customer needs and financial power of the customers. Since one enterprise application can be composed of several subsystems coming from different software providers interoperability issues between the different subsystems have to be taken into account during the design and implementation of the enterprise application and its variants. One effective technique for the development of families of similar software system variants is known as product family engineering. Product family engineering concentrates on a concrete family of software variants tackling any interoperability issues explicitly for the set of family members intended to be part of the product family. Advantages of applying product family engineering techniques are reduced development costs, a quicker time to market for the system variants, and typically a higher software quality [1]. Therefore, the application of product family engineering techniques can help improving the

Modeling and implementing variability in state machine based process family architectures for automotive systems

In this paper we present an approach for modeling UML State Machine based process family architectures, which is part of our work to transfer Product Family Engineering techniques to process oriented software like automotive systems. For modeling UML State Machine based architectures of automotive system families we introduce a set of variability mechanisms. These allow for taking the different properties of variability realization techniques into account during the development of a process family architecture. We also touch some variability implementation issues in C/C++ and provide a lightweight UML extension for the introduction of variability mechanisms into State Machines.

A Practical Approach for Process Family Engineering of Embedded Control Software

This paper introduces an approach for the development of families of embedded control processes using process family engineering techniques, exemplarily in the automotive domain, based on UML. The feasibility of our approach is validated by means of a tool chain, which is applied to a windshield wiper case study