Modularity in the context of product line variability

Abstract

Product line software engineering (PLSE) has been recognized as a key software development paradigm for meeting diverse needs of the global market efficiently and effectively giving competitive advantages to IT industries and embedded systems developers. The PLSE paradigm has been changing the way software developers think about software development: from the single application view to the application family, i.e., product line, view. Several software engineering concepts and techniques have been developed to support the product line engineering, including commonality and variability analysis, product line architecture, variation points and variants, and variability management. However, modularity of software in the context of product line engineering has become even more important than it was in the context of single application development as we need to manage variability and also promote reuse across a family of related applications. We must take the variability into consideration when we design for modularity, bringing another dimension of complexity into software engineering. In my talk, I will give an overview of the evolution of reuse concepts, introduce product line engineering, and then discuss various approaches to modularity in the context of product line variability. Pending research issues will also be discussed.