Towards a Solution for Change Impact Analysis of Software Product Line Products

Despite the fact that some practitioners and researchers report successful stories on Software Product Lines (SPL) adaptation, the evolution of SPL remains challenging. In our research we study a specific aspect of SPL adaptation, namely on updating of deployed products. Our particular focus is on the correct execution of updates and minimal interruption of services during the updates. The update process has two stages. First, the products affected by the evolution must be identified. We call this stage SPL-wide change impact analysis. In the second stage, each of the affected products has to be updated. In our previous work we have addressed the second stage of the update process. In this paper we report on our early results of the first stage: change impact analysis. We discuss how existing variability models can be employed to support automated identification of the products that require an update. The discussion is illustrated with the examples from an educational SPL that we are developing at K.U. Leuven.