Managing variability using heterogeneous feature variation patterns

  • Authors:

  • Imed Hammouda;Juha Hautamäki;Mika Pussinen;Kai Koskimies

  • Affiliations:

  • Institute of Software Systems, Tampere University of Technology, Tampere, Finland;Institute of Software Systems, Tampere University of Technology, Tampere, Finland;Institute of Software Systems, Tampere University of Technology, Tampere, Finland;Institute of Software Systems, Tampere University of Technology, Tampere, Finland

  • Venue:
  • FASE'05 Proceedings of the 8th international conference, held as part of the joint European Conference on Theory and Practice of Software conference on Fundamental Approaches to Software Engineering
  • Year:
  • 2005

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Abstract

Feature-driven variability is viewed as an instance of multi-dimensional separation of concerns. We argue that feature variation concerns can be presented as pattern-like entities – called feature variation patterns – cross-cutting heterogeneous artifacts. We show that a feature variation pattern, covering a wide range of artifact types from a feature model to implementation, can be used to manage feature-driven variability in a software development process. A prototype tool environment has been developed to demonstrate the idea, supporting the specification and use of heterogeneous feature variation patterns. We illustrate the idea with a small example taken from J2EE, and further study the practical applicability of the approach in an industrial product-line.