Structural Views, Structural Evolution, and Product Families

Abstract

Product families are united by common abstractions. When common abstractions can be directly translated into common implementation design elements and software components, reengineering and reuse are facilitated. But direct translation is often limited, however, by exigencies of performance, packaging, and product evolution. The result is an introduction of code-level sacrifices in commonality in which abstraction boundaries are reconfigured, inter-component communication patterns are tangled, and components are specialized and tailored. The consequences of these code-level sacrifices in commonality can be significant, since work is shifted from leveraged common design elements to a diversity of product-specific realizations. While this diversity may offer specific advantages in performance or packaging, it also can negate the potential leverage of reengineering and reuse at the product-line level.

This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant No. CCR-9504339 and by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency and Rome Laboratory, Air Force Materiel Command, USAF, under agreement number F30602-97-2-0241. The U.S. Government is authorized to reproduce and distribute reprints for Governmental purposes notwithstanding any copyright annotation thereon. The views and conclusions contained herein are those of the authors and should not be interpreted as necessarily representing the official policies or endorsements, either expressed or implied, of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, Rome Laboratory, the National Science Foundation, or the U.S. Government.