Feature location for software product line migration: a mapping study

Developing software from scratch is a high cost and error-prone activity. A possible solution to reduce time-to-market and produce high quality software is the reuse of existing software. But when the number of features in the system grows, the maintenance becomes more complex. In such cases, to adopt a systematic approach, such as Software Product Line Engineering, is necessary. Existing systems are generally migrated to a product line, allowing systematic reuse of artefacts and easing maintenance. To this end, some approaches have been proposed in the literature in the last years. A mapping of works on this subject and the identification of some research gaps can lead to an improvement of such approaches. This paper describes the main outcomes of a systematic mapping study on the evolution and migration of systems to SPL. The main works found are presented and classified according to adopted strategy, artefacts used, and evaluation conducted. Analysis of the evolution along the past years are also presented. At the end, we summarize some trends and open issues to serve as reference to new researches.