Introduction - Model-Driven and Software Product Line Engineering - page 5

that renders them practical even in large-scale industrial
applications.
MDE appears as a promising technique for SPLE since it
provides uniformity and abstraction for software artifacts and
processes. SPLE is a paradigm that focuses on artifact re-use
and variability management. It introduces a complex software
process and artifacts that are more numerous, heterogeneous,
and complex than in traditional software engineering. MDE
can help in representing the artifacts in a uniform and
abstract way. SPLE also requires some specific tasks such
as product configuration and should place more emphasis
on traceability management. MDE has the ability to build
complextransformations,whichispromisingintheautomation
of domain and application engineering.
1.3. Merging model-driven and software product line
engineering
SPLE and MDE have common concerns: improving
productivity, making software development cost-effective,
empowering domain experts in software development,
enforcing architecture, capturing domain and technological
knowledge in separate artifacts, increasing software quality,
and automating the construction of software products as
much as possible. They are also complementary. Model-driven
engineering seems a promising trend in automating the
production chain needed for the creation of product lines. It
is also suited to model the various concerns and artifacts of
a product line. SPLE proposes a global view and process for
product line engineering with a strong focus on the rational
re-use of artifacts.
Many approaches to create SPLs based on MDE have
emerged e.g. [VÖL 07b,WAG 05]. These are called MDE-based
SPL approaches or MD-SPL approaches. MDE conceives the
whole software development cycle as a process of creation,