INGI Seminar

The role of context variability in dynamic software product line approaches

by Rafael Capilla, Assistant Professor at University Rey Juan Carlos (Madrid, Spain)

More and more context data is being used by a plethora of devices and complex intensive systems that require adapt its behavior to varying context conditions. The challenge to automate software’s response and make this smarter than ever is driving the way many modern systems should be built. In this light, the role of context knowledge combined with dynamic variability mechanisms able to cope the diversity of runtime scenarios seems a suitable combination to provide smarter solutions that can be used by context-aware systems. In addition, emerging paradigms like dynamic software product lines and dynamic ecosystems attempt to make possible the transition from static to dynamic and also provide multiple binding modes for different system’s operational modes. This talk explores the role of context knowledge with dynamic variability techniques and describes how context features can be used to model different context scenarios and increase the automation of static variability solutions in support of runtime scenarios.

Rafael Capilla is an Associate Professor of software engineering at Rey Juan Carlos University of Madrid (Spain). Rafael holds a PhD in computer science and is co-author or more than 90 conference, journal papers and book chapters. He is also co-author of the Springer book (2013) “Systems and Software Variability Management, Concepts, Tools and Experiences” with Jan Bosch and Kyo Chul Kang. He has been co-editor of 9 special issues for IEEE Software and Journal of Systems and Software among others and his main research interests include software architecture, architectural knowledge, product line engineering, run-time variability, software sustainability and technical debt.