Delta modeling in practice

Abstract

Delta modeling is a method for modeling software product lines (SPL), which supports the automated derivation of products. ABS is a recent modeling language and accompanying toolset that implements delta modeling as its core paradigm for developing variable systems. Due to its novelty, delta modeling has so far seen little practical application. However, only practical evaluation can indicate to what extent the delta modeling methodology is suited for the efficient and accurate modeling and implementation of SPLs. This paper reports on the development of an industrial scale product line in ABS following a workflow that guides the application of delta modeling in practice. By following the delta modeling workflow (DMW), we show how conflicting feature functionality can be systematically reconciled, and how DMW guides the implementation towards a globally unambiguous and complete product line. We further explain how this experience has been used to refine the workflow and its support by the ABS language.

On Slicing Software Product Line Signatures

“…A starting point for this investigation could be represented by the algorithms for refactoring IF∆J SPLs presented in [14,15,18]. The Abstract Behavioural Specification (ABS) language [9,31,16] is a delta-oriented modeling language has been successfully used in the context of industrial use cases [32,28,2,11]. DeltaJava [33,48] is a delta-oriented programming language designed to comfortably create SPLs within the Java environment.…”

Automatic refactoring of delta-oriented SPLs to remove-free form and replace-free form

“…The Abstract Behavioural Specification (ABS) language [11] is a delta-oriented modeling language that has been successfully used in industry [31,27,2,14]. In future work we would like to formulate our refactoring algorithms for ABS and to implement them as part of of the ABS toolchain (http://abs-models.org/) and to apply them on concrete industrial case studies, in other to evaluate whether they allow to improve the comprehensibility of the considered SPLs.…”

Experiences with Constructing and Evolving aSoftware Product Line with Delta-Oriented Programming

“…Behringer and Fey [2] present how their tool suite PEoPL can be applied to an artificial case study. Helvensteijn et al [9] present the case study Fredhopper, which is realized using the delta modeling capacities of ABS [6]. With the Body Comfort System case study, Lity et al [14] provide an extensive source for a delta-oriented SPL using state charts, architecture diagrams, textual requirements, and test cases.…”