Architectural Knowledge in Product Line Engineering: An Industrial Case Study

Dhungana, D., Rabiser, R., Grünbacher, P.
Christian Doppler Laboratory for Automated Software Engineering
Johannes Kepler University, Austria
{dhungana, rabiser, gruenbacher}@ase.jku.at

Prähofer, H.
Christian Doppler Laboratory for Automated Software Engineering
Institure for System Software
Johannes Kepler University, Austria
herbert.praehofer}jku.at

Federspiel, Ch., Lehner, K.
Siemens VAI, Austria
federspiel@catalysts.cc, klaus.lehner@siemens.com

Abstract

Capturing and sharing architectural knowledge is already a complex endeavor when dealing with conventional software systems for single customers. In product line engineering, however, the situation is even more difficult due to architectural variability and complex relationships between features and technical solution components. In this paper, we present our experiences and approaches taken in eliciting and sharing architectural knowledge for the software product line infrastructure of a company in the plant building domain. An important lesson learned is the necessity of capturing architectural knowledge and making this knowledge available appropriately to various stakeholders in the product line environment.

Get PDF

© IEEE, 2006.
Published in proceedings of the 32nd EUROMICRO Conference on Software Engineering and Advanced Applications (EUROMICRO-SEAA'06), Cavtat/Dubrovnik (Croatia), September 2006.