Visual Configuration in Automotive Software Product Lines

Author
Year of Publication
2008
Conference
Proceedings of the 32nd Annual IEEE International Computer Software and Applications Conference, COMPSAC 2008, 28 July - 1 August 2008, Turku, Finland
Pages
1070-1075
URL
http://dx.doi.org/10.1109/COMPSAC.2008.108
DOI
10.1109/COMPSAC.2008.108
Keywords
Abstract
Software product line engineering has emerged as a viable and important software development paradigm in the automotive industry. It allows companies to realise significant improvements in time-to-market, cost, productivity, and system quality. One major difficulty with software product line engineering is related to the fact that a product line of industrial size can easily incorporate thousands of variation points. This scale of variability can become extremely complex to manage resulting in a product configuration process that bears significant costs. This paper introduces a meta-model and research tool that employs visualisation and interaction techniques to improve product configuration in high-variability product lines. The meta-model and techniques utilised are illustrated using an automotive restraint system example.