An empirical study of performance using Clone & Own and Software Product Lines in an industrial context

• Published in: Information and software technology 2021-02, Vol.130, p.106444, Article 106444
• Main Authors: Echeverría, Jorge, Pérez, Francisca, Panach, José Ignacio, Cetina, Carlos
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Clone and Own; Empirical evaluation; Experiment; Software Product Line
• ISSN: 0950-5849; 1873-6025
• DOI: 10.1016/j.infsof.2020.106444

Clone and Own (CaO) is a widespread approach to generate new software products from existing software products by adding small changes. The Software Product Line (SPL) approach addresses the development of families of products with similar features, moving away from the production of isolated products. Despite the popularity of both approaches, no experiment has yet compared them directly. The goal of this paper is to know the different performances of software engineers in the software products development process using two different approaches (SPL and CaO). We conducted an experiment in the induction hobs software environment with software engineers. This experiment is a single factor experiment where the factor is the approach that is used to develop software products, with two treatments: (SPL or CaO). We compared the results obtained by the software engineers when they develop software products related to effectiveness, efficiency, and satisfaction. The findings show that: (1) the SPL approach is more efficient even though the number of checking actions required by this approach is greater than the number required by the CaO approach; (2) the SPL approach offers more possibilities than software engineers need to perform their daily tasks; and (3) software engineers require better search capabilities in the CaO approach. The possible explanations for these results are presented in the paper. The results show that there are significant differences in effectiveness, efficiency, and satisfaction, with the SPL approach yielding the best results.