Supporting Model Maintenance in Component-based Product Lines

Software product line engineering aims at increasing software quality and development productivity by mastering the variability of large software systems. Models are frequently used to define the reusable assets and the restrictions regarding asset composition in different products. However, product line engineering is challenged by evolution. Reusable assets such as software components need to be adapted to meet new customer or market requirements as well as technological needs. In this paper we present an approach that supports the maintenance of product line models by checking their consistency with the available components. We describe algorithms and heuristics for creating and updating the models defining a product line's features and components. We evaluate our approach using realistic change scenarios from a product line of time recorder applications.