Grants and Contributions:

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Title:
MAVIS - MAnagement of Variability in Information Systems
Agreement Number:
EGP
Agreement Value:
$25,000.00
Agreement Date:
Apr 25, 2017 -
Organization:
Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada
Location:
British Columbia, CA
Reference Number:
GC-2017-Q1-00486
Agreement Type:
Grant
Report Type:
Grants and Contributions
Additional Information:

Grant or Award spanning more than one fiscal year. (2017-2018 to 2018-2019)

Recipient's Legal Name:
Weber, Jens Holger (University of Victoria)
Program:
Engage Grants for Universities
Program Purpose:

The evolution of software systems becomes increasingly complex when they are customized for diversex000D
markets and application contexts. Much of this arising complexity stems from unmanaged variability of systemx000D
functionality and features. Unmanaged variability impedes testability and quality assurance and increases thex000D
likelihood of defects. The software engineering community has developed well-founded practices to developx000D
software-intensive systems with variability. Such so-called software product families (or software product linesx000D
- SPL) are evolved and quality assured based on architectural models and methods that carefully distinguishx000D
between core functionality and variant features.x000D
"Legacy" systems that have not been engineered with SPL practices must be reengineered as a prerequisite tox000D
implementing SPL practices. This involves the (1) extraction of the software's variation points, (2) thex000D
association of software artifacts to core components and variants, and (3) the refactoring of the legacy systemx000D
to facilitate SPL practices.x000D
The research community has developed methods and tools in support of migrating legacy software to SPLs.x000D
However, the applicability of these results is often limited to particular kinds of systems. Few empirical studiesx000D
exist to assess the maturity and readiness of SPL reengineering methods and tools "at scale" and withx000D
industrial-strength case studies that were not specifically chosen to demonstrate a given method.x000D
The objective of this project is to review, select and assess the readiness of current SPL reengineeringx000D
methods and tools in the context of a heavily evolved software system in the medical domain, developed by ourx000D
partner OSCAR EMR. The results of this project will provide novel empirical insights on the applicability,x000D
maturity, scalability and limitations of current SPL reengineering methods. They will benefit OSCAR EMR asx000D
well as the research community, as they will provide an empirical basis for technology transfer and follow-upx000D
collaborative research on improving existing methods and tools.