Aspect-Oriented Model-Driven Software Product Line Engineering

Software product line engineering aims to reduce develop- ment time, effort, cost, and complexity by taking advantage of the com- monality within a portfolio of similar products. The effectiveness of a software product line approach directly depends on how well feature variability within the portfolio is implemented and managed through- out the development lifecycle, from early analysis through maintenance and evolution. This article presents an approach that facilitates vari- ability implementation, management, and tracing by integrating model- driven and aspect-oriented software development. Features are separated in models and composed by aspect-oriented composition techniques on model level. Model transformations support the transition from problem to solution space models. Aspect-oriented techniques enable the explicit expression and modularization of variability on model, template, and code level. The presented concepts are illustrated with a case study of a home automation system.