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Domain specific design patterns capture domain knowledge and provide solutions of non trivial design problems in a specific domain. Their application improves considerably the quality of software design. In order to benefit from these advantages and to reinforce the application of these patterns, we provide, in this paper, new processes and tools for the development and the instantiation of domain specific design patterns, especially those intended for real-time domain. Initially, we propose a pattern development process that guides pattern developers in the construction of patterns. The proposed process defines unification rules that apply a set of comparison criteria on various applications in the pattern domain. This process is illustrated through the design of the controller pattern. Moreover, we propose a process guiding the application designers in pattern instantiation based on model transformation. Finally, the proposed RT patterns and their development process are evaluated by calculating quality metrics and comparing the applications designed with our RT patterns and others developed by experts without the use of our patterns.

A software product line (SPL) represents a family of products in a given application domain. Each SPL is constructed to provide for the derivation of new products by covering a wide range of features in its domain. Nevertheless, over time, some domain features may become obsolete with the apparition of new features while others may become refined. Accordingly, the SPL must be maintained to account for the domain evolution. Such evolution requires a means for managing the impact of changes on the SPL models, including the feature model and design. This paper presents an automated method that analyzes feature model evolution, traces their impact on the SPL design, and offers a set of recommendations to ensure the consistency of both models. The proposed method defines a set of new metrics adapted to SPL evolution to identify the effort needed to maintain the SPL models consistently and with a quality as good as the original models. The method and its tool are illustrated through an example of an SPL in the Text Editing domain. In addition, they are experimentally evaluated in terms of both the quality of the maintained SPL models and the precision of the impact change management.

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