Applying product line Use case modeling in an industrial automotive embedded system: Lessons learned and a refined approach

In this paper, we propose, apply, and assess Product line Use case modeling Method (PUM), an approach that supports modeling variability at different levels of granularity in use cases and domain models. Our motivation is that, in many software development environments, use case modeling drives interactions among stakeholders and, therefore, use cases and domain models are common practice for requirements elicitation and analysis. In PUM, we integrate and adapt existing product line extensions for use cases and introduce some template extensions for use case specifications. Variability is captured in use case diagrams while it is reflected at a greater level of detail in use case specifications. Variability in domain concepts is captured in domain models. PUM is supported by a tool relying on Natural Language Processing (NLP). We applied PUM to an industrial automotive embedded system and report lessons learned and results from structured interviews with experienced engineers.