GEARS Commercial SPL Tool Ohad Utitz Moran Nave May 2013

Outline Overview Methodological Aspects Language Tool’s Capabilities & Characteristics Design Case Studies Benefits & Limitations References

GEARS Tool Overview Provides a set of integrated tools to support each phase of the software product-line development process Integrates with various tools and data types Provides a unique "console" – the Gears Development Environment

Methodological Aspects

Methodological Aspects

Tool’s Capabilities & Characteristics A single, automated product configurator Extends rather than replaces existing software engineering toolset Create a "supply chain" of feature configurable PLE assets Feature modeling constructs provided by Gears: a) Feature declarations b) Feature assertions c) Feature profiles

Tool’s Capabilities & Characteristics Automated production line comprised of three elements:  Configurable Assets  Feature Profiles  Product Configurator

Language Requirements: Doors, SysML UML Models: Rhapsody Source code & compilers: Java, C, C++, C#, Ada, Perl, XML, HTML User guide: Word Consumer Product spec: Excel Unit tests: Junit Integration & system test cases: Quality manager

Design Product Line Engineering (PLE) Lifecycle Framework enables the integration of tools, assets and processes across the systems and software development lifecycle:  A single feature model  A single variation point mechanism  A single, automated product configurator

Framework \ Design

The PLE Bridge API :  "Product line aware"- supports for feature- based variation points in the assets managed by the tool The Gears Bridge SDK Design

Case Studies Adopted by IBM General Dynamics and U.S. Army Ikerlan/Alstom HomeAway

Benefits An increase in the scope of product diversity and the scale of different products that can be effectively delivered in a product line A reduction in per-product development cost and overhead A reduction in time to market for new and updated products, and an increased agility to react to new opportunities and changing marketplace conditions An increase in product quality and improved risk management

Limitations Gears is intended for large and established organizations:  Doesn’t fit for private use  Expensive for small organizations

References Biglever Software website at Krueger, Charles W. "BigLever software gears and the 3-tiered SPL methodology." Companion to the 22nd ACM SIGPLAN conference on Object-oriented programming systems and applications companion. ACM, 2007.‏ Clements, Paul et all. “Systems and Software Product Line Engineering with BigLever Software Gears”, BigLever Software, Inc.