A systematic review and an expert survey on capabilities supporting multi product lines

Context: Complex software-intensive systems comprise many subsystems that are often based on heterogeneous technological platforms and managed by different organizational units. Multi product lines (MPLs) are an emerging area of research addressing variability management for such large-scale or ultra-large-scale systems. Despite the increasing number of publications addressing MPLs the research area is still quite fragmented. Objective: The aims of this paper are thus to identify, describe, and classify existing approaches supporting MPLs and to increase the understanding of the underlying research issues. Furthermore, the paper aims at defining success-critical capabilities of infrastructures supporting MPLs. Method: Using a systematic literature review we identify and analyze existing approaches and research issues regarding MPLs. Approaches described in the literature support capabilities needed to define and operate MPLs. We derive capabilities supporting MPLs from the results of the systematic literature review. We validate and refine these capabilities based on a survey among experts from academia and industry. Results: The paper discusses key research issues in MPLs and presents basic and advanced capabilities supporting MPLs. We also show examples from research approaches that demonstrate how these capabilities can be realized. Conclusions: We conclude that approaches supporting MPLs need to consider both technical aspects like structuring large models and defining dependencies between product lines as well as organizational aspects such as distributed modeling and product derivation by multiple stakeholders. The identified capabilities can help to build, enhance, and evaluate MPL approaches.