Optimized Feature Selection in Software Product Lines using Discrete Bat Algorithm

Abstract

Software Product Lines (SPLs) are one of the ways to develop software products by increasing productivity and reducing cost and time in the software development process. In SPLs, each product has many features and it is necessary to consider the optimal and custom features of the products. In fact, selecting key features in SPLs is a challenging process. Feature selection in SPLs is an optimization problem and an NP-Hard problem. One way to select a feature is to use meta-heuristic algorithms modeled on nature, i.e., Bat Algorithm. By modeling bat behavior in prey hunting, a suitable meta-innovative algorithm is considered. This algorithm has important advantages that make it more accurate than conventional methods such as Genetic Algorithm (GA) and Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO) algorithm. In this paper, to select software product features, idol binary algorithm and artificial neural network are used to identify important features of software products that reduce production costs and time. The experiments in MATLAB software and datasets related to software production lines show that the rate of reduction of target performance error or feature selection cost in software production lines in the proposed method has decreased by 64.17% with increasing population.