SPL Conqueror: Toward optimization of non-functional properties in software product lines Norbert Siegmund • Marko Rosenmu ¨ ller • Martin Kuhlemann • Christian Ka ¨stner • Sven Apel • Gunter Saake Ó Springer Science+Business Media, LLC 2011 Abstract A software product line (SPL) is a family of related programs of a domain. The programs of an SPL are distinguished in terms of features, which are end-user visible characteristics of programs. Based on a selection of features, stakeholders can derive tailor- made programs that satisfy functional requirements. Besides functional requirements, different application scenarios raise the need for optimizing non-functional properties of a variant. The diversity of application scenarios leads to heterogeneous optimization goals with respect to non-functional properties (e.g., performance vs. footprint vs. energy opti- mized variants). Hence, an SPL has to satisfy different and sometimes contradicting requirements regarding non-functional properties. Usually, the actually required non- functional properties are not known before product derivation and can vary for each application scenario and customer. Allowing stakeholders to derive optimized variants requires us to measure non-functional properties after the SPL is developed. Unfortunately, the high variability provided by SPLs complicates measurement and optimization of non- functional properties due to a large variant space. With SPL Conqueror, we provide a holistic approach to optimize non-functional properties in SPL engineering. We show how non-functional properties can be qualitatively speciﬁed and quantitatively measured in the N. Siegmund (&)  M. Rosenmu ¨ller  M. Kuhlemann  G. Saake University of Magdeburg, Magdeburg, Germany e-mail: nsiegmun@ovgu.de M. Rosenmu ¨ller e-mail: rosenmue@ovgu.de M. Kuhlemann e-mail: mkuhlema@ovgu.de G. Saake e-mail: saake@ovgu.de C. Ka ¨stner Philipps University Marburg, Marburg, Germany e-mail: kaestner@informatik.uni-marburg.de S. Apel University of Passau, Passau, Germany e-mail: apel@uni-passau.de 123 Software Qual J DOI 10.1007/s11219-011-9152-9