Using MDA for integration of heterogeneous components in software supply chains

Abstract

Software product lines are increasingly built using components from specialized suppliers. A company that is in the middle of a supply chain has to integrate components from its suppliers and offer (partly configured) products to its customers. To cover the whole product line, it may be necessary for integrators to use components from different suppliers, partly offering the same feature set. This leads to a product line with alternative components, possibly using different mechanisms for interfacing, binding and variability, which commonly occurs in embedded software development. In this paper, we describe a model-driven approach for automating the integration between various components that can generate a partially or fully configured variant, including glue between mismatched components. We analyze the consequences of using this approach in an industrial context, using a case study derived from an existing supply chain and describe the process and roles associated with this approach. © 2010 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg.