Empirical Assessment of the Perception of Software Product Line Engineering by an SME before Migrating its Code Base

Fuente: arXiv
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Hauptverfasser: Georges, Thomas, Huchard, Marianne, König, Mélanie, Nebut, Clémentine, Tibermacine, Chouki
Format: Preprint
Veröffentlicht: 2025
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author Georges, Thomas
Huchard, Marianne
König, Mélanie
Nebut, Clémentine
Tibermacine, Chouki
author_facet Georges, Thomas
Huchard, Marianne
König, Mélanie
Nebut, Clémentine
Tibermacine, Chouki
contents Migrating a set of software variants into a software product line (SPL) is an expensive and potentially challenging endeavor. Indeed, SPL engineering can significantly impact a company's development process and often requires changes to established developer practices. The work presented in this paper stems from a collaboration with a Small and Medium-sized Enterprise (SME) that decided to migrate its existing code base into an SPL. In this study, we conducted an in-depth evaluation of the company's current development processes and practices, as well as the anticipated benefits and risks associated with the migration. Key stakeholders involved in software development participated in this evaluation to provide insight into their perceptions of the migration and their potential resistance to change. This paper describes the design of the interviews conducted with these stakeholders and presents an analysis of the results. Among the qualitative findings, we observed that all participants, regardless of their role in the development process, identified benefits of the migration relevant to their own activities. Furthermore, our results suggest that an effective risk mitigation strategy involves keeping stakeholders informed and engaged throughout the process, preserving as many good practices as possible, and actively involving them in the migration to ensure a smooth transition and minimize potential challenges.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2512_02707
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Empirical Assessment of the Perception of Software Product Line Engineering by an SME before Migrating its Code Base
Georges, Thomas
Huchard, Marianne
König, Mélanie
Nebut, Clémentine
Tibermacine, Chouki
Software Engineering
Artificial Intelligence
Migrating a set of software variants into a software product line (SPL) is an expensive and potentially challenging endeavor. Indeed, SPL engineering can significantly impact a company's development process and often requires changes to established developer practices. The work presented in this paper stems from a collaboration with a Small and Medium-sized Enterprise (SME) that decided to migrate its existing code base into an SPL. In this study, we conducted an in-depth evaluation of the company's current development processes and practices, as well as the anticipated benefits and risks associated with the migration. Key stakeholders involved in software development participated in this evaluation to provide insight into their perceptions of the migration and their potential resistance to change. This paper describes the design of the interviews conducted with these stakeholders and presents an analysis of the results. Among the qualitative findings, we observed that all participants, regardless of their role in the development process, identified benefits of the migration relevant to their own activities. Furthermore, our results suggest that an effective risk mitigation strategy involves keeping stakeholders informed and engaged throughout the process, preserving as many good practices as possible, and actively involving them in the migration to ensure a smooth transition and minimize potential challenges.
title Empirical Assessment of the Perception of Software Product Line Engineering by an SME before Migrating its Code Base
topic Software Engineering
Artificial Intelligence
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2512.02707