Product line development of web systems with conventional tools

Abstract

Development of software product lines is a challenge for small organizations. Although the use of feature models is necessary to manage variability, we propose to use conventional tools for the rest of development activities. Traceability between the features and the UML architectural models is achieved by means of the package merge mechanism of UML 2. A similar strategy is applied at the implementation level, using packages of partial classes. The combination of these techniques and conventional IDE tools make the developments of product lines easier as it removes the need for specialized tools and personnel. This article reports a successful experience with these techniques in the domain of web applications. © 2009 Springer Berlin Heidelberg.