Experiences of applying model-based analysis to support the development of automotive software product lines

In embedded systems in general and in automotive systems in particular the systematic reuse of existing assets is crucial. Moreover, companies in these domains often offer whole families of similar products. Hence, the application of product line engineering seems to be an obvious option. However, current products have reached a complexity level where management of products within a product line cannot be handled with current techniques and tools (e.g. Matlab/Simulink) alone. To sustain an efficient engineering process and to reach the required quality levels of the products, additional techniques are required. In this paper we report on a prototypical framework for the analysis of embedded systems product lines. The techniques and tools offered by the framework were developed to support engineers in typical tasks, which occur during design, implementation, and maintenance of embedded software product lines. The techniques allow to analyse product line artefacts by transforming them into models, which are then used in an analysis process based on model transformation languages.