Horst Lichter

RequiLine: A Requirements Engineering Tool for Software Product Lines

Software Product Lines are characterized through common and variable parts. Modeling variability is one of the most important tasks during the analysis phase. Domain analysis and requirements elicitation will bring up a huge amount of requirements and dependencies between product characteristics. Feature modeling is one approach to deal with complexity in expressing several requirements in features and structure them hierarchically in feature diagrams. Unfortunately the requirements and feature models become very complex as well. An adequate tool support is needed to manage the feature models and to support the linkage to requirements. Our research group has developed a prototype of a requirements engineering tool that supports the requirements engineering process for software product lines.

Prototyping in industrial software projects-bridging the gap between theory and practice

Prototyping, a method and technique frequently used in many engineering disciplines, has been adopted as a technique in software engineering to improve the calculation of new projects involving risks. However, there has so far been a lack of documented experience with the use of prototyping in industrial software production. The paper tries to close this gap. First, we introduce central prototyping concepts and terminology. We also present five industrial software projects in which explicit use was made of prototyping. Based on our analysis of these projects we present the resulting conclusions: prototyping means more than rapidly developing user interfaces; prototyping is a central part of a development strategy; prototyping means end user involvement; finding the right mixture of prototypes improves the development process. >

User interface prototyping—concepts, tools, and experience

In recent years the development of highly interactive software systems with graphical user interfaces has become increasingly common. The acceptance of such a system depends to a large degree on the quality of its user interface. Prototyping is an excellent means for generating ideas about how a user interface can be designed, and it helps to evaluate the quality of a solution at an early stage. We present the basic concepts behind user interface prototyping, a classification of tools supporting it and a case study of nine major industrial projects. Based on our analysis of these projects we present the following conclusions: prototyping is used more consciously than in recent years. No project applied a traditional life-cycle approach, which is one of the reasons why most of them were successful. Prototypes are increasingly used as a vehicle for developing and demonstrating visions of innovative systems.

Prototyping in industrial software projects—bridging the gap between theory and practice

Prototyping has been adopted as a technique in software engineering. There has been a lack of documented experience with the use of prototyping in industrial software production. The present work tries to close this gap by presenting an analysis of results obtained from case studies of industrial software projects in which explicit use of prototypes was made with a differing understanding of the underlying concepts. The major concern was to analyze the experience gained in the projects and the major pitfalls in the use of prototyping and, in particular, to juxtapose these pros or cons and the claims made for prototyping in the literature. The analysis is not limited to success stories because understanding the limits and problems of prototyping will help to make full use of the obvious advantages.<<ETX>>

Towards the Integration of UML- and textual Use Case Modeling

In this paper, we present a metamodel for textual use case descriptions, structurally conforming to the UML, to specify the behavior of use cases in a flow-oriented manner. While being primarily targeted at supporting requirements engineers in creating consistent use case models, the metamodel defines a textual representation of use case behavior that is easily understandable for readers, who are unaware of the underlying metamodel. Hence, the known benefits of natural language use case descriptions are preserved. Being formalized, consistency between UML-based use case representations and their textual descriptions can be automatically ensured. With NaUTiluS we present an extensible, Eclipse-based toolkit, which offers integrated UML use case modeling support, as well as editing capabilities for their textual descriptions.

Determining the variation degree of feature models

When developing a product line the knowledge about the variation de gree is of vital importance for development, maintenance and evolution of a prod uct line. In this paper we focus on the variation degree of product line feature models, considering different types of variability and dependency relationships between features.

Towards definitions for release engineering and DevOps

Delivering software fast, reliable, and predictable is essential for software development organizations. Yet, they often struggle to implement proper approaches and practices like release engineering and DevOps. One reason is the lack of consistent definitions for both of these terms, making it difficult to grasp the meaning and adding further confusion. To the best of our knowledge, there are no uniform definitions for both terms, and thus, many inadequate or even wrong interpretations exist. Consequently, these terms are often confused, misinterpreted, or used as synonyms. In this paper, we propose definitions for release engineering and DevOps to tell both apart.

Model Driven Development Challenges in the Automation Domain

Model driven development has evolved to a mature methodology and technology usable for some industrial settings. Within the automation domain it is an upcoming approach. This paper addresses challenges present in the automation domain when it comes to the usage of model driven development. Quality, life cycle, legacy systems, mental approach and safety challenges are briefly discussed.

A Cost-Based Approach to Software Product Line Management

The evolution of a software product line requires different product management practices compared to a single product since the diverging requirements of different customers must be coordinated to preserve the common product line architecture. Allowing too much variability leads to substantial follow-up costs during the lifecycle. This paper describes the challenges of product management for an evolving software product line. A costing approach is proposed to enable more transparency on the costs of variability, support sound decisions on the appropriate amount of variability and gain control on the development process.

Prototyping in industrial software projects

Presents five case studies of industrial software projects specifically involving prototyping. Designates projects ranging from 240 person‐years to two person‐years involving large industrial corporations to small/medium software manufacturers. Analyses the benefits and limitations of prototyping. Concludes that prototyping is conducive to the quality of the product and the development process, particularly when used in conjunction with an evolutionary development strategy and when all parties are aware of the benefits and limitations.