Enabling the Smooth Integration of Core Assets: Defining and Packaging Architectural Rules for a Family of Embedded Products

Abstract

One of the remaining challenges in product line engineering is how to establish the quality of the reusable assets so that we can be confident that they can be configured and composed reliably. This is desirable, both to avoid having to completely re-test each product and to avoid integration faults only being detected late in product development. One of the diversity mechanisms of Philips’ high-end TV product line is the selection and com position of sub-systems, so different sub-system variants must integrate reli ably if the aims of the product line are to be realized. An earlier study of in tegration testing obligations in Philips products concluded that certain design policies must be imposed if integration testing is to be feasible, but it did not describe how relevant policies could be identified at the earliest stages of de sign. This paper addresses how a set of architectural rules were established for the TV product line through a root-cause analysis of problem reports, and packaged so that developers can recognize when they should be applied. The approach builds on other work on the impact of design choices on non-func-tional requirements to ensure that all quality attributes are addressed.