Kumbang: A domain ontology for modelling variability in software product families

Variability is the ability of a system to be efficiently extended, changed, customised or configured for use in a particular context. There is an ever-growing demand for variability of software. Software product families are an important means for implementing software variability. We present a doma...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Advanced engineering informatics 2007, Vol.21 (1), p.23-40
Main Authors: Asikainen, Timo, Männistö, Tomi, Soininen, Timo
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Feature modelling
Kumbang
Modelling
Software architecture
Software product family
Variability
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Summary:Variability is the ability of a system to be efficiently extended, changed, customised or configured for use in a particular context. There is an ever-growing demand for variability of software. Software product families are an important means for implementing software variability. We present a domain ontology called Kumbang for modelling the variability in software product families. Kumbang synthesises previous approaches to modelling variability in software product families. In addition, it incorporates modelling constructs developed in the product configuration domain for modelling the variability in non-software products. The modelling concepts include components and features with compositional structure and attributes, the interfaces of components and connections between them, and constraints. The semantics of Kumbang is rigorously described using natural language and a UML profile. We provide preliminary proof of concept for Kumbang: the domain ontology has been provided with a formal semantics by implementing a translation into a general-purpose knowledge representation language with formal semantics and inference support. A prototype tool for resolving variability has been implemented.
ISSN:1474-0346
1873-5320
DOI:10.1016/j.aei.2006.11.007