MAP - Mining Architectures for Product Line Evaluation
Challenges:
- How do you determine if some of your existing software systems have a common architecture?
- How do you evaluate your existing architectures to determine whether or not it is feasible, from a technical viewpoint, to move to a product line?
Overview:
The MAP method is used to reconstruct the
architectures of similar products and determine the commonalities and
variabilities across those architectures. This information can be used to make
a determination as to whether or not it feasible to move a product line with
these products.
Benefits:
The MAP method enables one to obtain software
architecture views of the current products and determine commonalities and
variabilities across the architectures of these products. The information
generated as a result of applying the MAP method can be used as input to the
decision-making process of whether or not to move to common product line
architecture for those products. Some of the architecture components identified
may be reusable in the new product line approach.
Who Would Benefit:
Software product or project managers,
software architects, software product line managers and software documentation
and reengineering specialists.
Example Use:
The MAP method has been used on several embedded
automobile systems to make a determination from a technical point of view, as
to whether or not to move to a product line approach. In this case a product
line approach was adopted and products using the new product line approach are
being developed.
Description:
MAP consists of 5 steps which are:
- Preparation – in this step the organizational and technical issues are considered and the candidate products are selected.
- Extraction – in this step the information from the code of each system is extracted and put into a database for further manipulation.
- Composition – in this step the component views of the system are established. It is the key step for capturing structures for the commonality and variability evaluation.
- Qualification – in the step mapping of architecture styles and attributes to the system and its components and relations is carried out.
- Evaluation – in this step evaluation of the candidates concerning product line potential is made.
If the decision to move to a product line is made then follow-up work may involve definition of the product line architecture (ADD), evaluation of the new architecture (ATAM) or mining of components for use in the new architecture (OAR).
Outputs of MAP include:
- A report and presentation of the architecture views of the reconstructed software architecture of the candidate products
- Analysis for the commonalities and variabilities of the architectures of these products.
Availability:
SEI staff will work with a customer to apply the
MAP method to there products.
Additional Information:
- Technical details: Reed Little
- Arranging MAP services: Linda Northrop
Related SEI Products and Services:
Architecture
Reconstruction
Attribute Driven Design
(ADD) Method
Architecture Tradeoff Analysis
Method (ATAM)
Options Analysis for
Reengineering (OAR) Method
Migration
Planning
Keywords:
Architecture reconstruction and mining, reverse
engineering, commonalities and variabilities.