Embedding Quality into Software Product Line Variability Artifacts

The success of any software product line development project is closely tied to its domain variability management. Whereas a lot of effort has been put into functional variability management by the SPL community, non-functional variability is considered implicit. The result has been dissatisfaction among clients due to resultant poor quality systems. This work presents an integrated requirement specification template for quality and functional requirements at software product line variation points. The implementation of this approach at the analytical description phase increases the visibility of quality requirements obliging developers to implement them. The approach proposes the use of decision tree classification techniques to support the weaving of functional quality attributes at respective variation points. This work, therefore, promotes software product line variability management objectives by proposing new functional quality artifacts during requirements specification phase. The approach is illustrated with an exemplar mobile phone family data storage requirements case study.

Toward Process Variability Management in Online Examination Process in German Universities: A State of the Art

In contemporary organizations, multiple variants of the same business process are often considerable. Such business process variability has caused considerable challenges, both while modeling processes and in their execution. In order to develop a new approach to managing process variants, or extend an existing one, in this research, we review the state of the art in a particular area: online examination processes. We show to what extent variability should be considered in exam processes, whether this is due to special legal restrictions and regulations, different exam frameworks, or even different technical infrastructure. This could be the foundation for developing an approach to managing process variability in the field of e-assessment. Initial findings indicate that examination processes have many similarities, but also considerable differentiation. Therefore, there an appropriate model needs to be developed in order to manage variability in e-assessment and the developed approach must then be validated in identifying faculties. This paper constitutes a first step in this direction.