Extending FragOP Domain Reusable Components to Support Product Customization in the Context of Software Product Lines

Abstract

Software product lines (SPL) have become an efficient paradigm for systematic reuse. SPL engineering is about the planned reuse of common assets for the rapid production of a software systems family. In SPL, an effective product derivation process is key to ensure that the effort required to develop the common assets will be lower than the benefits achieved through their use. While several approaches and tools are available on SPL engineering activities such as, variability management, component assembling, and product testing; most of the existing approaches do not present detailed information on the strategies for product customization (which affects the product derivation effectiveness). In a previous work, we introduced fragment-oriented programming (FragOP), which is a framework used to design, implement, and reuse domain components. In this paper, we enhanced the FragOP approach through the use of customization points and customization files to support the product customization activity. In order to gain preliminary insights into how VariaMos (the tool in which the approach is implemented) supports the FragOP approach, we designed a usability test by following the ISO/IEC 25062:2006 Common Industry Format for usability tests. Eight graduate students from the Universidad Nacional de Colombia took part and were asked to carry out a series of modifications to an e-commerce SPL. The usability test reported high subject performance results; however, we found some usability flaws that should be addressed.