PACE: A DSL-based Approach to Manage Complex Build Pipelines

Nelson Fonseca, Joao Paulo Fernandes, Mario Pires, Simao Melo De Sousa

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingConference contribution

Abstract

Software development must be accelerated as much as possible in order to keep up with the fast-changing needs of the current market. When developing software products with complex architectures, one of the challenges is to handle dependencies between the (sub-)products developed by different teams. Namely during the validation stage, complex build pipelines need to be implemented, which may slow down the release of the software. The current strategies to implement build pipelines do not exploit abstraction, are often too restrictive in their application domain and require significant implementation, evolution, and maintenance efforts. We report our experience with an alternative approach that we believe combines for the first time the possibility of constructing a build pipeline architecture and at the same time all the automation logic. This allows for code reuse and inheritance. Our solution is in the form of a Domain-Specific Language called PACE, which we implemented and validated (in-house) in an industrial context. Our results provide evidence that in general, there are benefits in using PACE.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Title of host publicationProceedings - 46th Euromicro Conference on Software Engineering and Advanced Applications, SEAA 2020
EditorsAntonio Martini, Manuel Wimmer, Amund Skavhaug
PublisherInstitute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Inc.
Pages43-50
Number of pages8
ISBN (Electronic)9781728195322
DOIs
StatePublished - Aug 2020
Event46th Euromicro Conference on Software Engineering and Advanced Applications, SEAA 2020 - Kranj, Slovenia
Duration: Aug 26 2020Aug 28 2020

Publication series

NameProceedings - 46th Euromicro Conference on Software Engineering and Advanced Applications, SEAA 2020

Conference

Conference46th Euromicro Conference on Software Engineering and Advanced Applications, SEAA 2020
Country/TerritorySlovenia
CityKranj
Period8/26/208/28/20

Keywords

  • build pipelines
  • composable blocks
  • continuous delivery
  • continuous integration
  • domain-specific languages
  • pipeline as code

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Organizational Behavior and Human Resource Management
  • Hardware and Architecture
  • Software

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