Multi software product lines: A systematic mapping study

Even if Software Product Line (SPL) is an established technique in software engineering, there are several limitations of its use. This is mainly caused by the exponential increase of software systems complexity and by the high pace of software and hardware evolution. Many of these limitations have been studied and faced by applying the Multi Software Product Line (MSPL), an extension of the SPL. MSPL is an emerging and novel technique based on using more than one SPL to derive a functional product system. This paper aims to characterize the state of the art of MSPL, the main goal is to highlight the reached achievement in this field and then discuss about the open issues or the not covered aspects of this approach. In order to make an overall analysis inside the research community, a well-defined method of systematic mapping is applied in order to classify, in a proper scheme, every paper strictly related to this topic. These classified results could give a valid hint about lacks which should be investigated further.