A Software Product Line Approach for E-Commerce Systems

This article reports a successful experience of software product line development in the domain of e-commerce applications. Product lines are challenging for small organizations, so we propose to use conventional tools for most of development activities. Trace ability between the features and the UML architectural models is achieved by means of the package merge mechanism of the UML 2, as representation of the variability at design level. The management of feature models is integrated within a conventional IDE tool, using a plug-in developed by our research group. The combination of basic variability management techniques and conventional tools make the developments of e-commerce applications easier as it removes the need for specialized tools and personnel.