Feature-Based Systems and Software Product Line Engineering with Gears from BigLever

This paper describes a demonstration of the product line engineering tool and framework called Gears from BigLever Software. Gears is the automation at the heart of a PLE Factory, which itself is the conceptual construct at the heart of Feature-based Product Line Engineering. (Feature-based PLE is the subject of an upcoming ISO standard.) Gears provides the means to create and maintain a Feature Catalog via a unified feature modeling language; the means to create and maintain a Bill-of-Features Portfolio, which is a way to specify the members of the product line by the features that each one exhibits; and a single variation point mechanism that works in Shared Assets across the entire product lifecycle. The result is an automated production line capability that can quickly produce any product in the portfolio from the same, single set of shared assets.