Product-line architecture: New issues for evaluation

Abstract

In the product-line context, where a lack or mismatch in a quality attribute is potentially replicated among all products, product-line evaluation could detect problems before concrete products are developed. The life span of a software product-line architecture is much longer than the one of an ordinary software product and it serves as a basis for a set of related systems. Therefore, the product-line architecture should be adaptable to evolution as well as support a number of different products. All these characteristics set new requirements to the product-line architecture evaluation. This paper highlights the new issues that can arise when evaluating a product-line architecture versus evaluating a single-system architecture, including classifications of relevant attributes in product-line architecture evaluation, new evaluation moments and techniques. These issues are used as components of a framework to survey product-line architecture evaluation methods and metrics. © Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2005.