Une particularité importante du logiciel est sa capacité à être adapté et configuré selon différents scénarios. Récemment, la variabilité du logiciel a été étudiée comme un concept de première classe dans différents domaines allant des lignes de produits logiciels aux systèmes ubiquitaires. La variabilité est la capacité d'un produit logiciel à varier en fonction de différentes circonstances. Les systèmes à forte variabilité mettent en jeu des produits logiciels où la gestion de la variabilité est une activité d'ingénierie prédominante. Les diverses parties de ces systèmes sont couramment modélisées en utilisant des formes différentes de ''modèle de variabilité'', qui est un formalisme de modélisation couramment utilisé. Les modèles de caractéristiques (feature models) ont été introduits par Kang et al. en 1990 et sont une représentation compacte d'un ensemble de configurations pour un système à forte variabilité. Le grand nombre de configurations d'un modèle de caractéristiques ne permet pas une analyse manuelle. De fait, les mécanismes assistés par ordinateur sont apparus comme une solution pour extraire des informations utiles à partir de modèles de caractéristiques. Ce processus d'extraction d'information à partir de modèles de caractéristiques est appelé dans la littérature scientifique ''analyse automatisée de modèles de caractéristiques'' et a été l'un des principaux domaines de recherche ces dernières années. Plus de trente opérations d'analyse ont été proposées durant cette période. Dans cette thèse, nous avons identifié différentes questions ouvertes dans le domaine de l'analyse automatisée et nous avons considéré plusieurs axes de recherche. Poussés par des scénarios du monde réel (e.g., la téléphonie mobile ou la vidéo protection), nous avons contribué à appliquer, adapter ou étendre des opérations d'analyse automatisée pour l’évolution, le test et la configuration de systèmes à forte variabilité. / The large number of configurations that a feature model can encode makes the manual analysis of feature models an error prone and costly task. Then, computer-aided mechanisms appeared as a solution to extract useful information from feature models. This process of extracting information from feature models is known as ''Automated Analysis of Feature models'' that has been one of the main areas of research in the last years where more than thirty analysis operations have been proposed. In this dissertation we looked for different tendencies in the automated analysis field and found several research opportunities. Driven by real-world scenarios such as smart phone or videosurveillance domains, we contributed applying, adapting or extending automated analysis operations in variability intensive systems evolution, testing and configuration.

Abstract This study examines value creation by value added resellers (VARs) in the context of the enterprise systems business, with particular respect to product lifecycle management (PLM) systems. The purpose of the study is to increase theoretical and empirical understanding of value creation in this specific context by integrating the enterprise systems theory, the software ecosystems theory, the software business model theory, and the value creation theory. The theoretical framework assumes the perspective of the VARs, and examines their interactions with customers and suppliers during the value creation process. The customers and suppliers are the parties that perceive the value created by the VAR. The primary objective is to determine how and why the VAR creates value in the perception of its customers and suppliers. The method includes a qualitative case study research strategy in which empirical data were collected primarily through interviews with highly knowledgeable informants within three VAR organizations, five customer organizations, and five supplier organizations. Each source viewed the scope of the research questions from a diverse perspective. As a result of the empirical analysis, value creation by the VAR value was connected to the VAR type, the value creation strategy, and the business model. The VAR's strategy results from synergy and synchronization with its PLM system. The customer-perceived value is, in part, the value created by the VAR-customer business relationship. It is also partially specific to the customer type. A VAR creates value for its customers because its product and service offerings fulfill customer needs, and because it offers abilities, knowledge, expertise, and experience of interest to its customers. The most advanced value creation occurs when the business relationship is a source of co-value creation that creates value for both parties. The supplier-perceived value is also partially specific to the supplier type. The VAR- supplier business relationship creates value for suppliers because the VAR extends the supplier’s market presence, offers market and customer knowledge, and creates new business opportunities. This study is context-dependent and geographically and culturally focused on Nordic countries. The results reflect the contexts of the three research cases and their geographical and cultural areas, and as such are not generalizable. / Tiivistelmä Tutkimus keskittyy lisäarvoa tuottavien jälleenmyyjien (VAR) arvontuotantoon yritysjärjestelmien liiketoimintakontekstissa ja siinä erityisesti tuotteen elinkaaren hallintajärjestelmien liiketoimintakontekstissa. Tutkimuksen tarkoitus on lisätä sekä teoreettista että empiiristä ymmärrystä arvontuotannosta integroimalla yritystietojärjestelmä-, ohjelmistoekosysteemi-, ohjelmistoliiketoimintamalli- ja arvontuotantoteorioita. Teoreettisen viitekehyksen näkökulma on VAR:t sekä niiden vuorovaikutus asiakkaiden ja toimittajien kanssa arvontuotantoprosessin aikana. Asiakkaat ja toimittajat ovat niitä osapuolia, jotka havaitsevat VAR:n arvontuotannon. Tutkimuksen päätarkoitus on ymmärtää miten ja miksi VAR luo lisäarvoa asiakkailleen ja toimittajilleen. Tutkimusstrategia on laadullinen tapaustutkimus. Empiirinen materiaali on kerätty pääasiassa tekemällä haastatteluja kolmessa VAR-yrityksessä, sekä viidessä asiakasyrityksessä ja viidessä toimittajayrityksessä. Haastateltavilla oli hyvä ymmärrys tutkimuksen kohteesta. He arvioivat siihen liittyen tutkimuskysymyksiä useista eri näkökulmista. Tutkimustulokset osoittavat, että VAR:n arvon tuottaminen on riippuvainen VAR:n tyyppistä, sen arvontuotantostrategiasta sekä sen liiketoimintamallista. VAR:n strategia on synkronoitu sen PLM järjestelmätoimittajan strategiaan. Asiakkaan havaitsema arvo muodostuu osittain asiakkaan ja VAR:n välisen liikesuhteen tuottamasta arvosta. Lisäksi se on riippuvainen asiakkaan tyypistä. VAR tuottaa arvoa asiakkailleen, jos sen tuote- ja palvelutarjonta vastaa niiden tarpeita. Lisäksi se tuottaa arvoa, jos sillä on kyvykkyyksiä, tietämystä, asiantuntemusta ja kokemusta, joita sen asiakkaat tarvitsevat. Edistyneintä arvontuotantoa edustaa liikesuhteen mahdollistama yhteinen arvontuotanto, josta hyötyvät molemmat osapuolet. Arvontuotanto on osittain riippuvainen toimittajan tyypistä. VAR tuottaa arvoa toimittajilleen, koska se laajentaa niiden läsnäoloa markkinoilla, tuntee markkinat ja niiden asiakkaat sekä luo uusia liiketoimintamahdollisuuksia. Tutkimus on kontekstiriippuvainen. Se on maantieteellisesti ja kulttuurillisesti keskittynyt Pohjoismaihin. Tutkimuksen tulokset heijastavat kolmea tutkimustapausta ja niiden maantieteellistä ja kulttuurillista taustaa eikä sen takia ole sellaisenaan yleistettävissä.

La complexité croissante des systèmes logiciels modernes a motivé la nécessité d'élever le niveau d'abstraction dans leur conception et mis en œuvre. L'usage des langages dédiés a émergé pour répondre à cette nécessité. Un langage dédié permet de spécifier un système logiciel à travers des concepts relatifs au domaine d'application. Cette approche a plusieurs avantages tels que la diminution des détails techniques auxquels les développeurs doivent faire face, la séparation des préoccupations et la participation des experts du domaine dans le processus de développement. Malgré les avantages fournis par l'usage des langages dédiés, cette approche présente des inconvénients qui remettent en question sa pertinence dans des projets réels de développement logiciel. L'un de ces inconvénients est le coût de la construction des langages dédiés. La définition et l'outillage de ces langages est une tâche complexe qui prend du temps et qui requiert des compétences techniques spécialisées. Le processus de développement des langages dédiés devient encore plus complexe lorsque nous prenons en compte le fait que ces langages peuvent avoir plusieurs dialectes. Dans ce contexte, un dialecte est une variante d'un langage qui introduit des différences au niveau de la syntaxe et/ou de la sémantique. Afin de réduire le coût du processus de développement des langages dédiés, les concepteurs des langages doivent réutiliser autant de définitions que possible pendant la construction des variantes. Le but est d'exploiter les définitions et l'outillage définis précédemment pour dunaire au maximum, la mis en ouvre des zéro dans la construction de langages. Afin de répondre à la question de recherche précédemment énoncée, la communauté de recherche autour de l'ingénierie des langages a proposé l'usage des lignes de produits. En conséquence, la notion de lignes de langages a récemment émergé. Une ligne de langages est une ligne de produis où les produits sont des langages. Le principal but dans les lignes de langages est la définition indépendante de morceaux de langage. Ces morceaux peuvent être combinées de manières différentes pour configurer des langages adaptés aux situations spécifiques. D'une manière similaire aux lignes de produits, les lignes de langages peuvent être construites à partir de deux approches différentes: top-down et bottom-up . Dans l'approche top-down, les lignes de langages sont conçues et mis en œuvre au travers d'un processus d'analyse du domaine où les connaissances du domaine sont utilisées pour définir un ensemble de modules de langage qui réalisent les caractéristiques de la ligne de langages. En outre, les connaissances du domaine sont aussi utilisées pour représenter la variabilité de la ligne de langages à travers des modèles bien structurés qui, en plus, servent à configurer des langages particuliers. Dans l'approche bottom-up, les lignes des langages sont construites à partir d'un ensemble de variantes des langages existant au travers de techniques d'ingénierie inverse. À partir des approches précédemment énoncées, nous proposons deux contributions : (1) Des facilités pour supporter l'approche top-down. Nous proposons une approche de modularisation des langages qui permet la décomposition des langages dédiés comme modules de langages interdépendants. En plus, nous introduisons une stratégie de modélisation pour représenter la variabilité dans une ligne de langages. (2) Techniques d'ingénierie inverse pour supporter l'approche bottom-up. Comme deuxième contribution, nous proposons une technique d'ingénierie inverse pour construire, de manière automatique, une ligne de langages à partir d'un ensemble de variantes de langages existantes. Nos contributions sont validées à travers des cas d'étude industriels. / The use of domain-specific languages (DSLs) has become a successful technique in the development of complex systems because it furnishes benefits such as abstraction, separation of concerns, and improvement of productivity. Nowadays, we can find a large variety of DSLs providing support in various domains. However, the construction of these languages is an expensive task. Language designers are intended to invest an important amount of time and effort in the definition of formal specifications and tooling for the DSLs that tackle the requirements of their companies. The construction of DSLs becomes even more challenging in multi-domain companies that provide several products. In this context, DSLs should be often adapted to diverse application scenarios, so language development projects address the construction of several variants of the same DSL. At this point, language designers face the challenge of building all the required variants by reusing, as much as possible, the commonalities existing among them. The objective is to leverage previous engineering efforts to minimize implementation from scratch. As an alternative to deal with such a challenge, recent research in software language engineering has proposed the use of product line engineering techniques to facilitate the construction of DSL variants. This led the notion of language product lines i.e., software product lines where the products are languages. Similarly to software product lines, language product lines can be built through two different approaches: top-down and bottom-up. In the top-down approach, a language product line is designed and implemented through a domain analysis process. In the bottom-up approach, the language product line is built up from a set of existing DSL variants through reverse-engineering techniques. In this thesis, we provide support for the construction of language product lines according to the two approaches mentioned before. On one hand, we propose facilities in terms of language modularization and variability management to support the top-down approach. Those facilities are accompanied with methodological insights intended to guide the domain analysis process. On the other hand, we introduce a reverse-engineering technique to support the bottom-up approach. This technique includes a mechanism to automatically recover a language modular design for the language product line as we as a strategy to synthesize a variability model that can be later used to configure concrete DSL variants. The ideas presented in this thesis are implemented in a well-engineered language workbench. This implementation facilitates the validation of our contributions in three case studies. The first case study is dedicated to validate our languages modularization approach that, as we will explain later in this document, is the backbone of any approach supporting language product lines. The second and third case studies are intended to validate our contributions on top-down and bottom-up language product lines respectively.

La nécessité de produire des logiciels de qualité en adéquation avec les besoins spécifiques du marché a conduit à l'émergence de nouvelles approches de développements telles que les Lignes de Produits Logiciels (LPL). Cependant pour répondre aux exigences croissantes des nouveaux systèmes informatiques, il convient aujourd'hui d'envisager la production de ces systèmes comme des compositions d’un grand nombre de systèmes interconnectés que l'on nomme aujourd'hui des systèmes-de-systèmes. En terme de lignes de produits, il s'agit de supporter la modularité et la très grande variabilité de ces systèmes, aussi bien du point de vue de la définition des sous-systèmes, que du point de vue de leur composition tout en garantissant la viabilité des systèmes construits. Pour supporter la construction et l'utilisation de lignes de produits logiciels complexes, nous proposons une nouvelle approche basée sur (i) la définition du modèle du domaine de la ligne, (ii) la formalisation de la variabilité des éléments du domaine par des feature models (FM) et (iii) l’expression des dépendances entre ces différents FM. Pour maîtriser la complexité de telles lignes nous avons complété cette approche de modélisation par d'une part, des algorithmes visant à assurer la cohérence des lignes ainsi modélisées et d'autre part, la conception d'un processus de configuration des produits logiciels complexes garantissant la cohérence des produits sans imposer d'ordre dans les choix utilisateurs et en autorisant l'annulation des choix. Nous validons nos travaux sur une LPL dédiée à un système-de-systèmes de portée industrielle pour la production de systèmes de diffusion d’informations. / The necessity of producing high quality softwares and the specific software market needs raise new approaches such as Software Product Lines (SPL). However in order to satisfy the growing requirements of new information systems, we need to consider those systems as a composition of many interconnected sub-systems called systems-of-systems. As a SPL, it implies to support the modularity and the large variability of such systems, from the definition of sub-systems to their composition, ensuring the consistency of final systems. To support design and usage of such a complex SPL, we propose a new approach based on (i) the definition of a SPL domain model, (ii) the formalization of variability using feature models (FM) and (iii) the representation of dependencies between those different FM. In order to manage the complexity of this SPL we complete our approach by in one hand algorithms ensuring the consistency of the SPL and on the other hand the definition of a configuration process which guarantees the consistency of products without imposing order in user choices and authorizing to cancel any choice. This thesis presents a formalization of these works and demonstrates the expected properties of those SPL, like the control of the product line consistency with incremental algorithms exploiting the domain model topology, the formal definition and the proof of the configuration process flexibility, and the consistency concepts of the process itself. On these basis, we propose a first implementation and we validate our works on a SPL dedicated to an industrial scale system-of-systems for producing digital signage systems.

Uma Linha de Produtos de Software (LPS) consiste de um conjunto de sistemas de software que compartilham características comuns e satisfazem às necessidades específicas de um segmento particular. Para tornar o processo de instanciação de produtos mais rápido e menos suscetível a erros, o projeto de uma LPS pode adotar a utilização de geradores de aplicação, que podem gerar os artefatos da LPS utilizando uma especificação das variabilidades de um certo produto. Adicionalmente, notase que determinadas características transversais de uma linha de produtos têm potencial de reúso em diferentes domínios, podendo ser implementadas usando a programação orientada a aspectos (POA). Neste trabalho é proposto um processo para o desenvolvimento de LPS e geração automatizada de produtos levando em consideração os interesses transversais existentes em cada domínio de aplicação. Os interesses transversais são as características comuns espalhadas pelas divisões ou módulos do programa de diferentes domínios. O processo aqui proposto tem a finalidade de aumentar o reúso de características de linhas de produtos por meio da POA, permitindo que as LPSs sejam projetadas de forma mais coesa e, consequentemente, facilitando sua manutenção e evolução. Visando diminuir o esforço necessário para a instanciação dos produtos provenientes dessas linhas de produtos, neste trabalho também é apresentada uma extensão do gerador Captor, denominada Captor-AO. Esse gerador fornece suporte ao processo proposto, permitindo a criação de produtos formados por características de diferentes domínios. Por fim, é apresentado um estudo de caso em que é realizada a configuração de um domínio transversal para o interesse de persistência, a definição de um domínio-base compatível com esse domínio transversal e a geração de produtos formados pelas características de ambos os domínios utilizando o gerador estendido Captor-AO / A Software Product Line (SPL) consists of a set of software systems that share common features and fulfill the specific requirements of a particular domain. In order to make the products instantiation process faster and less prone to errors, the project of a SPL can adopt the utilization of application generators, which can can automatically generate the SPL artifacts based on the specification of the variabilities of a particular product. Additionally, it can be noticed that certain crosscutting features of a product line have potencial to be reused in different domains, so they can be implemented using aspect oriented programming (AOP). In this work, a process is proposed for the development of SPLs and automatic generation of products, considering the crosscutting concerns present in each application domain. The crosscutting concerns are related to the common features that are scattered around program divisions or modules of different domains. The process proposed here has the goal of enhancing the reuse of SPL features using AOP, allowing the design of SPL in a more cohesive way and, thus, easing its maintenance and evolution. Aiming at decreasing the effort needed to instantiate products from these SPL, this work also presents an extension to the Captor application generator, named Captor-AO. This generator supports the proposed process, allowing the creation of products composed by features of different domains. Finally, a case study is presented in which Captor-AO is configured with two domains: a crosscutting domain for the persistence concern and a base domain compatible with this crosscutting domain, such that the generation of products can be done by composing features of both domains

In this thesis, we present mixsets, an approach to combine annotative and compositional fragments for specifying code variants to form software product lines (SPLs). There are three key contributions of our research: introducing mixsets to represent software variability, extending mixsets to construct feature models, and improving software composition to achieve fine-grained variability. The concept of mixsets is introduced in Umple as a conditional unit and a first-class entity to allow smoothly transitioning software to compositional SPLs. A mixset is a named set of mixins; each mixin belonging to the mixset is called a fragment. A mixset fragment can be a top-level entity that contains nested entities or can be embedded as a conditional fragment in other entities such as methods. Mixset content normally includes code blocks or statements of any type, and may include require statements, which describe explicit dependencies among mixsets. Mixsets can be used to specify product lines using code composition, code annotation or both. A strength of mixsets lies on the straightforward mechanism to transform annotated segments into compositional segments when used in a combined approach. Therefore, preplanning effort and time to transform annotative SPLs to compositional SPLs can be reduced. Mixsets can provide a backbone structure to realize product line features in a feature-based SPL. Hence, a feature model can be formed using a subset of specific dependent mixsets. Feature interactions within an SPL can be identified and separated in specific modules by mixset nesting. Furthermore, product configuration, feature modeling analysis and generation of feature diagrams can be accomplished based on mixsets. The thesis also demonstrates a method to enable the granularity of compositional approaches to be expressed at the statement level. This is achieved by allowing aspects to inject code into labelled places, or points of variation, within method code. Such injected code has a full access to the context in which its placed, such as access to local variables. Mixsets are implemented in Umple, a model-driven development (MDD) technology that allows combining abstract models, such as associations and state machines, with pure code, and generating code in multiple programming languages. Mixsets can thus be used to describe variations in models, not just code. The thesis uses a design science approach as its research methodology. The mixset concept is evaluated through three case studies. The first applies mixsets to the Oracle Berkeley Database SPL, which is used in other literature to evaluate SPL concepts. This study shows that the mixset implementation improves on the state of the art in several respects, such as elimination of complex workarounds that are required by other approaches. In the second study, mixsets help to refactor Umple into feature-oriented SPL. The case study shows how annotative fragments can be easily transformed into compositional counterparts. In the third study, mixsets help to present two alternative solutions the to the Rover Control Challenge Problem of the MDETools 2018 workshop.

Over the past years, many software industries have adapted the Software Product Line(SPL) as a paradigm that empowers software reuse by exploiting software similarities and managing variabil- ities to enable high-quality deliverables with a shorter time to market. Nevertheless, the lifecycle of SPL development often faces complex tasks. Creating a specific product from the product family is the main challenge. One way towards product realization is through configuration files. Still, manually creating configuration files for each product is an error-prone and time-consuming activ- ity. Therefore, this thesis proposes a variability modeling approach that shall enable an automatic generation of the configuration files for a single product. We conduct a thorough investigation on how to model variability to support automatic generation of the configuration files, introduce four essential decisions related to variability expression, features, constraints and configuration transformation, and present a number of alternative solutions to these decisions. Moreover, we identify evolution scenarios of SPL and evaluate the decisions concerning the scenarios. Finally, a validation of the approach in an industrial case study provided by Bombardier Transportation is presented.

Due to a high competitive pressure on the global software market, in many areas the software industry is moving from hand crafting to semi-automatic or automatic software construction based on Software Product Lines (SPL). Techniques to automate the construction of software products from SPLs are widely available. These can handle variability in source code artifacts but they are inappropriate to handle variability in Graphical User Interfaces (GUIs). The main reason is that they are not designed to handle such fine grained configurations as they are required to configure GUI frameworks or toolkits. To nevertheless employ them in GUI generation tasks is complex and time consuming. However, in the Human Computer Interaction (HCI) community approaches to develop GUIs in a model-based manner and with constraint-based techniques are worked on that help automate the construction of GUIs. Therefore, the main hypothesis of the proposed research is that constraint-based GUIs techniques are a well suited basis for reducing the customization effort of generated GUIs of SPLs. The paper proposes a research plan to employ these new HCI techniques in generating GUIs for SPLs.

This thesis investigates the concept of citizen developers, in which employees in an organisation take on the role of developers and create software using low-code tools. The primary focus of this report is to examine the necessary steps an organisation must take when introducing citizen developers, particularly regarding solution maintenance. The purpose, therefore, is to establish a foundation for utilising the concept of citizen developers in the workplace, bridging the gap between users and developers. Furthermore, this study aims to explore the organisational structure required to incorporate citizen developers and identify the advantages and drawbacks associated with an organisational structure tailored for citizen developers. Citizen developers possess distinct roles and responsibilities within an organisation, making them experts in their respective fields. This expertise renders citizen developers a valuable resource, as they develop solutions to enhance their own work efficiency and effectiveness. A case company has been selected for this study, and interviews have been conducted with multiple employees from the organisation. Through analysis of these interviews and a comprehensive literature review, a governance model has been developed. The governance model delineates the level of responsibility citizen developers should assume, and an evaluation of the model also uncovers potential advantages and drawbacks of introducing citizen developers within an organisation. Ultimately, this thesis aims to contribute to research on the subject of citizen developers, with particular emphasis on solution maintenance.

<p>Feature modelling is an emerging software engineering paradigm, which helps organizations to develop products from core assets. Products are organized into families that share common core features. Feature modelling involves capturing, into a feature model, the commonality and variability of product families and several relationships among features or products. This thesis is about proposing a language for specifying feature models that is based on product family algebra (PFA). The language is intended to encompass the constructs found in early feature modelling graphical notations and languages. The thesis gives the syntax and the semantics of the proposed language. It discusses the design of its compiler that takes a feature model specification and generates its corresponding PFA, which can be analyzed using the tool Jory. The thesis uses a quite extensive case study to illustrate the use of the proposed language and its compiler.</p> / Master of Applied Science (MASc)