Variability Support in Architecture Knowledge Management Approaches: A Systematic Literature Review

Research on software architecture knowledge management (SAKM) within the last 10 years has focused on capturing and storing design decisions and their underlying rationales. Recent attempts have tried to combine SAKM with variability management to support the capture of knowledge for a set of related products. To assess the current state of the art of variability management in the context of SAKM, we conducted a systematic literature review to identify the characteristics of the existing approaches for combining variability and SAKM and the gaps related to their application in practice. We further identified the main elements of SAKM models related to variability management, which can serve as a first step towards a commonly agreed approach for documenting architecture knowledge in the context of software product line engineering.