一句话：通过工业调查与访谈，揭示高度可配置系统分析的实际需求、实践及工具缺口。
高度可配置系统因配置组合爆炸而难以分析，文献中已有大量可覆盖所有配置的分析技术，但其工业采用情况与实际需求尚不明确。作者对27名从业者进行问卷调查，并跟踪访谈其中15人，覆盖8个国家18家公司，研究其在分析高度可配置系统时的实践与需求。结果显示，文献关注的可靠性等属性确实重要，变异性模型与工件之间的一致性尤为关键；但多数针对配置选项规格（即变异性模型分析）的分析需求并不被感知。实践者采用务实策略，甚至通过经验采样测试等方式规避分析，系统化采样很少适用。论文还讨论了缺失的分析并给出未来研究建议。
Highly configurable systems are complex pieces of software. To tackle this complexity, hundreds of dedicated analysis techniques have been conceived, many of which able to analyze system properties for all possible system configurations, as opposed to traditional, single-system analyses. Unfortunately, it is largely unknown whether these techniques are adopted in practice, whether they address actual needs, or what strategies practitioners actually apply to analyze highly configurable systems. We present a study of analysis practices and needs in industry. It relied on a survey with 27 practitioners engineering highly configurable systems and follow-up interviews with 15 of them, covering 18 different companies from eight countries. We confirm that typical properties considered in the literature (e.g., reliability) are relevant, that consistency between variability models and artifacts is critical, but that the majority of analyses for specifications of configuration options (a.k.a., variability model analysis) is not perceived as needed. We identified rather pragmatic analysis strategies, including practices to avoid the need for analysis. For instance, testing with experience-based sampling is the most commonly applied strategy, while systematic sampling is rarely applicable. We discuss analyses that are missing and synthesize our insights into suggestions for future research.
DOI 原文 ·
@inproceedings{paperbot4721,
title = {Tackling combinatorial explosion: a study of industrial needs and practices for analyzing highly configurable systems},
author = {Mukelabai Mukelabai and Damir Nešić and Salome Maro and Thorsten Berger and Jan-Philipp Steghöfer},
booktitle = {ASE},
year = {2018},
doi = {10.1145/3238147.3238201}
}