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Managing Variability in SysML Models of Automotive Systems
Mälardalen University, School of Innovation, Design and Engineering, Embedded Systems.
2020 (English)Licentiate thesis, comprehensive summary (Other academic)
Abstract [en]

Organizations developing software-intensive systems inevitably face increasing complexity of developed products, mainly due to rapid advancements in all domains of technology. Many such organizations are considering model-based systems engineering (MBSE) practices to cope with the increasing complexity. The use of models, as a central role during product design, promises to provide benefits such as enhanced communication among system stakeholders, continuous verification, improved design integrity, traceability between requirements and system artifacts and many more. Additionally, products are often built in many variants. That is especially obvious in the automotive domain, where customers have the ability to configure vehicles with hundreds of configuration options. To deal with the variability, a product line engineering approach is often used. It allows the development of a family of similar software-intensive systems that share a common base while being adapted to individual customer requirements.

In this thesis, the overall goal is to evaluate and facilitate the combination of the two mentioned approaches, model-based systems engineering and product line engineering, in an industrial environment. To achieve the main thesis goal, it was divided into three separate research goals.The first goal was to identify challenges when applying an annotation-based approach for variant management in SysML models on a use case provided by Volvo Construction Equipment. The aim was to identify and understand challenges when using existing tool support to manage variants in implementation artifacts of existing products. The second research goal was to identify reuse-related challenges in the ``clone-and-own'' based development process of Volvo CE. Moreover, we assess the effects of model-based product line engineering on the identified challenges. Lastly, the third research goal was to develop an approach for consistency checking between variability- and SysML system models. To achieve that, we develop an integrated tool chain for model-based product line engineering that allows the integration of variable artifacts, which are not documented in system models, into the development process. Secondly, we define and develop an approach for consistency checking between variability models that describe the system in terms of features and implementation models that describe how variability is implemented in the product itself, since such support does not exist in current state of the art tools.

In conclusion, based on the results from the results of case studies at Volvo CE, it was shown that model-based product line engineering has the potential to improve communication and highlight implications of variability to stakeholders (e.g. to non-technical staff), improve traceability between variability in requirements and variability in design and implementation, improve consistency through constraints between variants and automate repetitive activities.In other words, it shows potential for improving product quality while reducing the development lead time. However, the evaluation and measurement of improvement will be left for future work as measuring the product quality and lead time requires an organizational roll out of model-based product-line engineering.

Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
Västerås: Mälardalen University , 2020.
Series
Mälardalen University Press Licentiate Theses, ISSN 1651-9256 ; 295
National Category
Embedded Systems
Research subject
Computer Science
Identifiers
URN: urn:nbn:se:mdh:diva-50895ISBN: 978-91-7485-479-4 (print)OAI: oai:DiVA.org:mdh-50895DiVA, id: diva2:1470374
Presentation
2020-11-03, Zeta (+ Online/Zoom), Mälardalens högskola, Västerås, 13:00 (English)
Opponent
Supervisors
Available from: 2020-09-25 Created: 2020-09-24 Last updated: 2020-10-05Bibliographically approved
List of papers
1. Model-Based Product Line Engineering in an Industrial Automotive Context: An Exploratory Case Study
Open this publication in new window or tab >>Model-Based Product Line Engineering in an Industrial Automotive Context: An Exploratory Case Study
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2018 (English)In: 1st Intl. Workshop on Variability and Evolution of Software-intensive Systems VariVolution'18, 2018Conference paper, Published paper (Refereed)
Abstract [en]

Product Line Engineering is an approach to reuse assets of complex systems by taking advantage of commonalities between product families. Reuse within complex systems usually means reuse of artifacts from different engineering domains such as mechanical, electronics and software engineering. Model-based systems engineering is becoming a standard for systems engineering and collaboration within different domains. This paper presents an exploratory case study on initial efforts of adopting Product Line Engineering practices within the model-based systems engineering process at Volvo Construction Equipment (Volvo CE), Sweden. We have used SysML to create overloaded models of the engine systems at Volvo CE. The variability within the engine systems was captured by using the Orthogonal Variability Modeling language. The case study has shown us that overloaded SysML models tend to become complex even on small scale systems, which in turn makes scalability of the approach a major challenge. For successful reuse and to, possibly, tackle scalability, it is necessary to have a database of reusable assets from which product variants can be derived.

Keywords
System product lines, Model-based systems engineering, Variability management, Orthogonal variability modeling
National Category
Engineering and Technology Computer Systems
Identifiers
urn:nbn:se:mdh:diva-42238 (URN)10.1145/3236405.3237200 (DOI)000455363200013 ()
Conference
1st Intl. Workshop on Variability and Evolution of Software-intensive Systems VariVolution'18, 10 Sep 2018, Gothenburg, Sweden
Projects
MegaMaRt2 - Megamodelling at Runtime (ECSEL/Vinnova)
Available from: 2018-12-28 Created: 2018-12-28 Last updated: 2022-11-09Bibliographically approved
2. An integrated model-based tool chain for managing variability in complex system design
Open this publication in new window or tab >>An integrated model-based tool chain for managing variability in complex system design
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2019 (English)In: Proceedings - 2019 ACM/IEEE 22nd International Conference on Model Driven Engineering Languages and Systems Companion, MODELS-C 2019, Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Inc. , 2019, p. 288-293Conference paper, Published paper (Refereed)
Abstract [en]

Software-intensive systems in the automotive domain are often built in different variants, notably in order to support different market segments and legislation regions. Model-based concepts are frequently applied to manage complexity in such variable systems. However, the considered approaches are often focused on single-product development. In order to support variable products in a model-based systems engineering environment, we describe a tool-supported approach that allows us to annotate SysML models with variability data. Such variability information is exchanged between the system modeling tool and variability management tools through the Variability Exchange Language. The contribution of the paper includes the introduction of the model-based product line engineering tool chain and its application on a practical case study at Volvo Construction Equipment. Initial results suggest an improved efficiency in developing such a variable system. 

Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Inc., 2019
Keywords
Integrated Tool Chain, Model-based Systems Engineering, Product Line Engineering, C (programming language), Construction equipment, Modeling languages, Systems analysis, Systems engineering, Integrated tools, Model-based product lines, Software intensive systems, Variability information, Variability management, Volvo construction equipments, Information management
National Category
Embedded Systems
Identifiers
urn:nbn:se:mdh:diva-46600 (URN)10.1109/MODELS-C.2019.00045 (DOI)000521634200035 ()2-s2.0-85075938686 (Scopus ID)9781728151250 (ISBN)
Conference
22nd ACM/IEEE International Conference on Model Driven Engineering Languages and Systems Companion, MODELS-C 2019, 15 September 2019 through 20 September 2019
Available from: 2019-12-20 Created: 2019-12-20 Last updated: 2020-09-24Bibliographically approved
3. Towards a Model-Driven Product Line Engineering Process - An Industrial Case Study
Open this publication in new window or tab >>Towards a Model-Driven Product Line Engineering Process - An Industrial Case Study
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2020 (English)In: ACM International Conference Proceeding Series, NEW YORK: ASSOC COMPUTING MACHINERY , 2020, article id 3385043Conference paper, Published paper (Refereed)
Abstract [en]

Many organizations developing software-intensive systems face challenges with high product complexity and large numbers of variants. In order to effectively maintain and develop these product variants, Product-Line Engineering methods are often considered, while Model-based Systems Engineering practices are commonly utilized to tackle product complexity. In this paper, we report on an industrial case study concerning the ongoing adoption of Product Line Engineering in the Model-based Systems Engineering environment at Volvo Construction Equipment (Volvo CE) in Sweden. In the study, we identify and define a Product Line Engineering process that is aligned with Model-based Systems Engineering activities at the engines control department of Volvo CE. Furthermore, we discuss the implications of the migration from the current development process to a Model-based Product Line Engineering-oriented process. This process, and its implications, are derived by conducting and analyzing interviews with Volvo CE employees, inspecting artifacts and documents, and by means of participant observation. Based on the results of a first system model iteration, we were able to document how Model-based Systems Engineering and variability modeling will affect development activities, work products and stakeholders of the work products.

Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
NEW YORK: ASSOC COMPUTING MACHINERY, 2020
National Category
Computer Systems Production Engineering, Human Work Science and Ergonomics
Identifiers
urn:nbn:se:mdh:diva-47531 (URN)10.1145/3385032.3385043 (DOI)000578290900007 ()2-s2.0-85082653763 (Scopus ID)9781450375948 (ISBN)
Conference
13th Innovations in Software Engineering Conference, ISEC 2020; IIITDM JabalpurJabalpur; India; 27 February 2020 through 29 February 2020
Available from: 2020-04-16 Created: 2020-04-16 Last updated: 2022-11-09Bibliographically approved
4. Detecting Inconsistencies in Annotated Product Line Models
Open this publication in new window or tab >>Detecting Inconsistencies in Annotated Product Line Models
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2020 (English)In: ACM International Conference Proceeding Series, 2020, Vol. F164267-A, p. 252-262, article id 20Conference paper, Published paper (Refereed)
Abstract [en]

Model-based product line engineering applies the reuse practices from product line engineering with graphical modeling for the specification of software intensive systems. Variability is usually described in separate variability models, while the implementation of the variable systems is specified in system models that use modeling languages such as SysML. Most of the SysML modeling tools with variability support, implement the annotation-based modeling approach. Annotated product line models tend to be error-prone since the modeler implicitly describes every possible variant in a single system model.To identifying variability-related inconsistencies, in this paper, we firstly define restrictions on the use of SysML for annotative modeling in order to avoid situations where resulting instances of the annotated model may contain ambiguous model constructs. Secondly, inter-feature constraints are extracted from the annotated model, based on relations between elements that are annotated with features. By analyzing the constraints, we can identify if the combined variability- and system model can result in incorrect or ambiguous instances. The evaluation of our prototype implementation shows the potential of our approach by identifying inconsistencies in the product line model of our industrial partner which went undetected through several iterations of the model.

Keywords
Model-based systems engineering, Product Line Engineering, Variability Modeling, SysML, Consistency Checking
National Category
Computer Systems
Research subject
Computer Science
Identifiers
urn:nbn:se:mdh:diva-50894 (URN)10.1145/3382025.3414969 (DOI)2-s2.0-85097834993 (Scopus ID)978-1-4503-7569-6 (ISBN)
Conference
24th ACM Conference on Systems and Software Product Line, SPLC 2020; Virtual, Online; Canada; 19 October 2020 through 23 October 2020; Code 164267
Projects
Adequacy-based Testing of Extra-Functional Properties of Embedded SystemsMINEStrAADEPTNESS
Available from: 2020-09-24 Created: 2020-09-24 Last updated: 2023-09-13Bibliographically approved

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