Formal modelling of feature configuration workflows

  • Authors:
  • Arnaud Hubaux;Andreas Classen;Patrick Heymans

  • Affiliations:
  • University of Namur, Namur, Belgium;University of Namur, Namur, Belgium;University of Namur, Namur, Belgium

  • Venue:
  • Proceedings of the 13th International Software Product Line Conference
  • Year:
  • 2009

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Abstract

In software product line engineering, the configuration process can be a long and complex undertaking that involves many participants. When configuration is supported by feature diagrams, two challenges are to modularise the feature diagram into related chunks, and to schedule them as part of the configuration process. Existing work has only focused on the first of these challenges and, for the rest, assumes that feature diagram modules are configured sequentially. This paper addresses the second challenge. It suggests using YAWL, a state-of-the-art workflow language, to represent the configuration workflow while feature diagrams model the available configuration options. The principal contribution of the paper is a new combined formalism: feature configuration workflows. A formal semantics is provided so as to pave the way for unambiguous tool specification and safer reasoning about of the configuration process. The work is motivated and illustrated through a configuration scenario taken from the space industry.