Variability Driven Quality Evaluation in Software Product Lines

Variability is a key aspect in software product lines. Functional variability has been largely studied as a way to obtain all the desired products for a line. Quality variability, less understood and more complex, has not received so much attention by researchers. However, different members of the line may require different levels of a quality attribute. The design phase is a good point to assure that quality attributes requirements are met within the product line so this means paying attention to software architecture evaluation during domain engineering. The quality evaluation in software product lines is much more complicated than in single-systems as products can require different quality levels and the product line can have variability on design that in turn affects quality. The evaluation of all the products of a line is very expensive. Thus, ways of reducing the evaluation efforts are necessary. Herein is presented a method for facilitating cost-effective quality evaluation of a product line taking into consideration variability on quality attributes.