We’re Not Gonna Break It! Consistency-Preserving Operators for Efficient Product Line Configuration

TY - JOUR

T1 - We’re Not Gonna Break It! Consistency-Preserving Operators for Efficient Product Line Configuration

AU - Horcas, Jose Miguel

AU - Strüber, Daniel

AU - Burdusel, Alex

AU - Martinez, Jabier

AU - Zschaler, Steffen

PY - 2022/4/29

Y1 - 2022/4/29

N2 - When configuring a software product line, finding a good trade-off between multiple orthogonal quality concerns is a challenging multi-objective optimisation problem. State-of-the-art solutions based on search-based techniques create invalid configurations in intermediate steps, requiring additional repair actions that reduce the efficiency of the search. In this work, we introduce consistency-preserving configuration operators (CPCOs)—genetic operators that maintain valid configurations throughout the entire search. CPCOs bundle coherent sets of changes: the activation or deactivation of a particular feature together with other (de)activations that are needed to preserve validity. In our evaluation, our instantiation of the IBEA algorithm with CPCOs outperforms two state-of-the-art tools for optimal product line configuration in terms of both speed and solution quality. The improvements are especially pronounced in large product lines with thousands of features.

AB - When configuring a software product line, finding a good trade-off between multiple orthogonal quality concerns is a challenging multi-objective optimisation problem. State-of-the-art solutions based on search-based techniques create invalid configurations in intermediate steps, requiring additional repair actions that reduce the efficiency of the search. In this work, we introduce consistency-preserving configuration operators (CPCOs)—genetic operators that maintain valid configurations throughout the entire search. CPCOs bundle coherent sets of changes: the activation or deactivation of a particular feature together with other (de)activations that are needed to preserve validity. In our evaluation, our instantiation of the IBEA algorithm with CPCOs outperforms two state-of-the-art tools for optimal product line configuration in terms of both speed and solution quality. The improvements are especially pronounced in large product lines with thousands of features.

U2 - 10.48550/arXiv.2204.12918

DO - 10.48550/arXiv.2204.12918

M3 - Article

SN - 0098-5589

JO - IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON SOFTWARE ENGINEERING

JF - IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON SOFTWARE ENGINEERING

ER -