Wednesday, January 27, 2010

The Scoping Process in Software Product Lines - Is there any relationship with Design?


I believe that the scoping process is very important to start a product line project. [If you are not familiar with the topic see Isabel John's papers about it and our systematic review].

However, I would like to understand more the relationship between it and the design. Let me explain better: Suppose that I am starting a product line based on a set of products. We collect all the documentation, define a product map with their features, understand and document all the commonality and variability, and that is it!

But in this case, we are defining the SPL scoping based on the existing assets (source code and documentation). From here, we can move, for example, to design the SPL architecture. However, you can observe that we are taking decisions based on the current state of the family, i.e., how it is. What are the implications for the next steps? Are we repeating the same decisions problems when the previous team created the products?

What could be a better solution: define the scope, recovery the SPL design, evaluate this design, reflect it in Scoping and moving forward?

In general sense the point is: for you, what is the relationship between scoping and design? is there any one?

Tuesday, January 19, 2010

What language for software reuse?

The RiSE community want to know from you if there is a specific programming language, or a type of languages, that is better for software. What do you think about it? Answer the poll on the left sidebar and let us know your opinion. If you prefer, post a comment saying the reasons for your choice(s). Cheers!