Contributions to the modelling and the use of software product lines

Abstract

In software engineering everything evolves very fast: user requirements, technologies, methodologies and appiications. Can we foresight and strengthen our approaches to build software to confront these more and more complex challenges? While there are key issues to solve, it is also noteworthy to know that we are very close to exciting innovations. Software Product Lines (SPL) - modeling technology together with source-code generative tools seem to make it easier to manage diverse environments with complex, constantly changing relationships. In the context of SPL, this thesis promotes the idea that the most promising way to address software engineering is to provide an approach centred on models which captures the know-how of a domain, independently from both the software platform and the possible appiications. In this context, this thesis concentrates on providing a solution to respond to two main questions: • How to develop model-onented software? In other words, it presents SmartModels approach which offers a flexible and easy way to describe the know-how of a business domain into models independent from the technology. Technology evolves continuousiy in all aspects - platforms, programming languages, etc., and as a result it is important for companies to find a solution to avoid investing in placing their know-how directiy at the level of a software platform, and to invest to a meta-level instead (using parameterized genericity). • How to build software product lines? In other words, SmartModels provides a solution for describing concepts - a new method of abstracting the domain entities into the model level, methods to handie the commonalities, but also the differences between products, which in addition call for the need to impose constraints. As a result a company gains in terms of productivity and adaptability. It also fosters new opportunities for easier evolution of the semantics of the domain entities and for better reusability which again results in increasing companies' productivity. Therefore, the thesis aims to take part in the modelling and the use of software product lines.