The state of adoption and the challenges of systematic variability management in industry

Handling large-scale software variability is still a challenge for many organizations. After decades of research on variability management concepts, many industrial organizations have introduced techniques known from research, but still lament that pure textbook approaches are not applicable or effi...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Empirical software engineering : an international journal 2020-05, Vol.25 (3), p.1755-1797
Main Authors: Berger, Thorsten, Steghöfer, Jan-Philipp, Ziadi, Tewfik, Robin, Jacques, Martinez, Jabier
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Challenges
Compilers
Computer Science
Datavetenskap (datalogi)
evolution
Interpreters
Literature reviews
Management
Multiple-case study
Organizations
Product lines
Programming Languages
Railways
Reengineering
reuse
Software development
Software Engineering
Software Engineering/Programming and Operating Systems
Software product lines
Variability management
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Summary:Handling large-scale software variability is still a challenge for many organizations. After decades of research on variability management concepts, many industrial organizations have introduced techniques known from research, but still lament that pure textbook approaches are not applicable or efficient. For instance, software product line engineering—an approach to systematically develop portfolios of products—is difficult to adopt given the high upfront investments; and even when adopted, organizations are challenged by evolving their complex product lines. Consequently, the research community now mainly focuses on re-engineering and evolution techniques for product lines; yet, understanding the current state of adoption and the industrial challenges for organizations is necessary to conceive effective techniques. In this multiple-case study, we analyze the current adoption of variability management techniques in twelve medium- to large-scale industrial cases in domains such as automotive, aerospace or railway systems. We identify the current state of variability management, emphasizing the techniques and concepts they adopted. We elicit the needs and challenges expressed for these cases, triangulated with results from a literature review. We believe our results help to understand the current state of adoption and shed light on gaps to address in industrial practice.
ISSN:1382-3256
1573-7616
DOI:10.1007/s10664-019-09787-6