Synchronizing software variants with variantsync

Abstract

Developing and managing software variants is a key challenge in today's software development. Due to conflicting requirements, software is developed in multiple variants to satisfy the needs of individual customers. While software product lines allow the efficient development of a high number of variants, many projects in industrial software development start with few variants, where each variant is developed separately. Unfortunately, for an increasing number of variants, this clone-and-own approach becomes error-prone and unprofitable regarding synchronization of changes between variants. With VariantSync, we demonstrate a tool to reduce the gap between clone-and-own and product lines by automating the synchronization of software variants and simplifying a potential later transition to a product line.