Cost Estimation for Product Line Engineering Using COTS Components

Abstract

Economic models for reuse are very important to organizations aiming to develop software with large scale reuse approaches. In fact, the initial investment is so important that it can discourage managers to commit to those approaches. Thus, economic models can help them to assess the worthiness of such an investment.Product Line Engineering (PLE) seems to be an attractive reuse approach in matter of product quality and time-to-market. Using Commercial Off The Shelf (COTS) in a PLE approach may have a positive impact.This paper reports on the need for an economic model to quantify the predicted benefits of the PLE software development with the use of COTS components. We introduce a Model for Software Cost Estimation in a Product Line Engineering approach that we denote SoCoEMo-PLE 2. This latter includes the usage of COTS components. The potential benefits of the model are described.

A Literature Review on Feature Diagram Product Counting and Its Usage in Software Product Line Economic Models

“…Economic models proposed in [12,20,21,34,43] use two abstractions, called the Relative Cost of Reuse (RCR) and the Relative Cost of Writing for Reuse (RCWR). RCR represents the proportion of the effort that it takes to reuse software compared to the cost normally incurred to develop it for one-time use.…”

“…For instance, if it costs an additional 50% effort to create a feature for reuse (i.e., it is necessary a more generic design, additional documentation...) then RCWR = 1.5. Poulin [21] defines a metric called payoff threshold, which is also used in [34,35,50]. Payoff threshold shows how many times a feature has to be reused before the investment made to develop the feature is recovered.…”

InCoME: Integrated Cost Model for Product Line Engineering

“…However, when we are considering the adoption of a product line in a reuse context the application of cost models presents some issues: (i) the existing cost models can be applied only in a restricted way, since they do not express the cost nature of a product line, which the development perspective is product-based, in opposition to the basic cost models that have a component-based viewpoint [11]; (ii) the existence of a few economic models dealing with product line engineering compared with the number of basic reuse cost models [19] [20] [21] [22] [23] [24]; (iii) some of the existing cost models for product line engineering can be applied only to estimate costs savings, lacking of an investment analysis strategy [16]; (iv) a few models have a reuse scenario-based approach in order to evaluate the dynamic situations that can occur in a product line [23]; and (v) none of the currently available models include in their definition a formal simulation model in order to investigate the uncertainty that can exist in input parameters of reuse scenarios [9].…”

SystEM-PLA: um método sistemático para avaliação de arquitetura de linha de produto de software baseada em UML

“…A análise visa aumentar os tipos 1, reduzir os tipos 2, manter os tipos 3 e tornar os tipos 4 em tipos 1. Lamine et al (2005) apresentam dois modelos de custo para LP: o modelo de custo integrado para reutilização e o modelo econômico de Poulin (1996). O primeiroé um modelo genérico e pode ser aplicadoà LP após algumas adaptações, enquanto o segundo propõe uma fórmula global para estimar ROI em um projeto usando LP.…”