Default values for improved product line management
Juha Erik Savolainen, Jan Bosch, Juha Kuusela, Tomi Männistö · 2009
Many companies apply software product lines based on explicit variability management. These product lines have existed for more than ten years. While research has progressed during that time and industrial experiences have been extensively reported, there seems to still be a gap between the industrial practice and research with respect to explicit software variability management. In this paper, we explain how commonality is managed in industry; how default values can be used to gain control over expanding scope and near-commonality; and discuss how evolution of default values indicate potential problems in industrial product lines. In addition, we explain what corrective actions can be taken to alleviate the identified problems.