Software Product Line Configuration and Traceability: An Empirical Study on SMarty Class and Component Diagrams

A Software Product Line (SPL) represents a set of systems sharing common and variable features. The varying features and respective elements (variability) enable differentiating products of a certain domain. Thus, managing variability is a crucial activity for the success of SPL engineering, especially those based on UML due to a large amount of variability representation in different diagrams. There are few experiments in the literature to evaluate and to compare UML-based variability management approaches. In this paper, we analyze a subset of such approaches: SMarty (our approach), PLUS, and Razavian and Khosravi. We empirically compared them by conducting an experiment with more than 50 participants in terms of configuring SPL products and variability traceability among class and component diagram variable elements. We also analyzed the influence of the participants knowledge on the use of each approach and the amount of material consultation required for each variability management approach. In addition, we checked whether participants comprehend traceability capabilities of approaches. Results pointed out: SMarty is as effective as other studied approaches to configuring SPL specific products; the number of consultations on each approach instructional material did not influence effectiveness; and SMarty needs more participants previous knowledge on UML to configure SPL products.