Flexible and scalable consistency checking on product line variability models

Abstract

The complexity of product line variability models makes it hard to maintain their consistency over time regardless of the modeling approach used. Engineers thus need support for detecting and resolving inconsistencies. We describe experiences of applying a tool-supported approach for incremental consistency checking on variability models. Our approach significantly improves the overall performance and scalability compared to batch-oriented techniques and allows providing immediate feedback to modelers. It is extensible as new consistency constraints can easily be added. Furthermore, the approach is flexible as it is not limited to variability models and it also checks the consistency of the models with the underlying code base of the product line. We report the results of a thorough evaluation based on real-world product line models and discuss lessons learned.