Variability Resolution and Product Configuration with SMarty: An Experimental Study on UML Class Diagrams

Variability management is one of the most important activities during software product line development and evolution. Current literature presents several approaches for variability management, especially based on UML, such as, PLUS and SMarty. A systematic process with guidelines support SMarty. Existing literature for these kind of approaches provides slight experimental evidence of their effectiveness at product configuration. Thus, this is considered fundamental for transferring technology to the industry. This paper provides experimental evidence on the product configuration capability of SMarty by comparing it to PLUS, one of the most cited product-line method in literature. The experimental study provides incipient evidence that SMarty is more effective for resolving variabilities and configuring consistent products at UML class level. Thus, overall obtained results indicated the capability of SMarty at configuring specific products.