Comparing approaches to implement feature model composition

Abstract

The use of Feature Models (FMs) to define the valid combinations of features in Software Product Lines (SPL) is becoming commonplace. To enhance the scalability of FMs, support for composing FMs describing different SPL aspects is needed. Some composition operators, with interesting property preservation capabilities, have already been defined but a comprehensive and efficient implementation is still to be proposed. In this paper, we systematically compare strengths and weaknesses of different implementation approaches. The study provides some evidence that using generic model composition frameworks are not helping much in the realization, whereas a specific solution is finally necessary and clearly stands out by its qualities. © 2010 Springer-Verlag.