SPLC 2009 - SPLC.net l Software Product Line Conferences

SPLC 2009 | The 13th International Software Product Line Conference
work on tool support for feature-based software development finally led to the founding of
pure-systems in 2001. At pure-systems, he also works as consultant in the area of product
line development, mainly for clients from the automotive industry. He has been tutorial
presenter, speaker, workshop organizer, and panelist at conferences such as AOSD, ISORC,
SPLC, and OOPSLA. In addition, he is the author of articles in scientific journals and
software developer magazines.
T10
Leveraging Model Driven Engineering in Software Product Line Architectures
Bruce Trask, MDE Systems, Inc
Angel Roman, MDE Systems, Inc
Model driven engineering (MDE) is a recent innovation in the software industry that has
proven to work synergistically with software product line architectures (SPLAs). MDE can
provide the tools necessary to fully harness the power of software product lines. The major
players in the software industry—including commercial companies such as IBM and
Microsoft, standards bodies such as the Object Management Group, and leading
Universities such as the ISIS group at Vanderbilt University—are embracing this MDE/
PLA combination fully. IBM is spearheading the Eclipse Foundation, including its MDE
tools like EMF, GEF, and GMF. Microsoft has launched its Software Factories foray into
the MDE space with its Domain Specific Language Toolkit. Top software groups such as
the ISIS group at Vanderbilt are using these MDE techniques in combination with SPLAs
for very complex systems. The Object Management Group is working on standardizing the
various facets of MDE. All of these groups are capitalizing on the perfect storm of critical
innovations today that allows such an approach to finally be viable. Further emphasizing
the timeliness of this technology is the complexity ceiling the software industry finds itself
facing, wherein the platform technologies have increased far in advance of the language
tools necessary to deal with them.
The process of d SPLAs can be a complex task. However, the use of MDE techniques can
facilitate their development by introducing domain-specific languages, domain-specific
graphical editors, and domain-specific generators. Together, these are considered the sacred
triad of MDE. Key to understanding MDE and how it fits into SPLAs is to know exactly
what each part of the trinity means, how it relates to the other parts, and what the various
implementations are for each. This tutorial will walk through the development of an entire
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