research-article

Feature-model interfaces: the highway to compositional analyses of highly-configurable systems

Authors:

Reimar Schröter,

Sebastian Krieter,

Fabian Benduhn,

Gunter SaakeAuthors Info & Claims

ICSE '16: Proceedings of the 38th International Conference on Software Engineering

Pages 667 - 678

https://doi.org/10.1145/2884781.2884823

Published: 14 May 2016 Publication History

Abstract

Today's software systems are often customizable by means of load-time or compile-time configuration options. These options are typically not independent and their dependencies can be specified by means of feature models. As many industrial systems contain thousands of options, the maintenance and utilization of feature models is a challenge for all stakeholders. In the last two decades, numerous approaches have been presented to support stakeholders in analyzing feature models. Such analyses are commonly reduced to satisfiability problems, which suffer from the growing number of options. While first attempts have been made to decompose feature models into smaller parts, they still require to compose all parts for analysis. We propose the concept of a feature-model interface that only consists of a subset of features, typically selected by experts, and hides all other features and dependencies. Based on a formalization of feature-model interfaces, we prove compositionality properties. We evaluate feature-model interfaces using a three-month history of an industrial feature model from the automotive domain with 18,616 features. Our results indicate performance benefits especially under evolution as often only parts of the feature model need to be analyzed again.

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Cited By

Sundermann CLoth JThüm TFilkov VRay BZhou M(2024)Efficient Slicing of Feature Models via Projected d-DNNF CompilationProceedings of the 39th IEEE/ACM International Conference on Automated Software Engineering10.1145/3691620.3695594(1332-1344)Online publication date: 27-Oct-2024
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3691620.3695594
Romero-Organvidez DHorcas JGalindo JBenavides D(2024)Data visualization guidance using a software product line approachJournal of Systems and Software10.1016/j.jss.2024.112029213:COnline publication date: 1-Jul-2024
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1016/j.jss.2024.112029
Horcas JStruber DBurdusel AMartinez JZschaler S(2023) We’re Not Gonna Break It! Consistency-Preserving Operators for Efficient Product Line Configuration IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering10.1109/TSE.2022.317140449:3(1102-1117)Online publication date: 1-Mar-2023
https://doi.org/10.1109/TSE.2022.3171404
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Index Terms

Feature-model interfaces: the highway to compositional analyses of highly-configurable systems
1. Software and its engineering
  1. Software creation and management
    1. Software development techniques
      1. Reusability
        Software product lines
    2. Software verification and validation
      1. Formal software verification
  2. Software organization and properties
    1. Software system structures
      1. Abstraction, modeling and modularity
      2. Software system models
        Feature interaction

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cover image ACM Conferences

ICSE '16: Proceedings of the 38th International Conference on Software Engineering

May 2016

1235 pages

ISBN:9781450339001

DOI:10.1145/2884781

General Chair:
Laura Dillon
Michigan State University
,
Program Chairs:
Willem Visser
Stellenbosch University, South Africa
,
Laurie Williams
North Carolina State University

Copyright © 2016 ACM.

Permission to make digital or hard copies of all or part of this work for personal or classroom use is granted without fee provided that copies are not made or distributed for profit or commercial advantage and that copies bear this notice and the full citation on the first page. Copyrights for components of this work owned by others than ACM must be honored. Abstracting with credit is permitted. To copy otherwise, or republish, to post on servers or to redistribute to lists, requires prior specific permission and/or a fee. Request permissions from [email protected]

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Published: 14 May 2016

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ICSE '16: 38th International Conference on Software Engineering

May 14 - 22, 2016

Texas, Austin

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Cited By

Sundermann CLoth JThüm TFilkov VRay BZhou M(2024)Efficient Slicing of Feature Models via Projected d-DNNF CompilationProceedings of the 39th IEEE/ACM International Conference on Automated Software Engineering10.1145/3691620.3695594(1332-1344)Online publication date: 27-Oct-2024
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3691620.3695594
Romero-Organvidez DHorcas JGalindo JBenavides D(2024)Data visualization guidance using a software product line approachJournal of Systems and Software10.1016/j.jss.2024.112029213:COnline publication date: 1-Jul-2024
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1016/j.jss.2024.112029
Horcas JStruber DBurdusel AMartinez JZschaler S(2023) We’re Not Gonna Break It! Consistency-Preserving Operators for Efficient Product Line Configuration IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering10.1109/TSE.2022.317140449:3(1102-1117)Online publication date: 1-Mar-2023
https://doi.org/10.1109/TSE.2022.3171404
Chrszon PBaier CDubslaff CKlüppelholz S(2023)Interaction detection in configurable systems – A formal approach featuring rolesJournal of Systems and Software10.1016/j.jss.2022.111556196:COnline publication date: 1-Feb-2023
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Damiani FHähnle RKamburjan ELienhardt MPaolini L(2023)Variability modulesJournal of Systems and Software10.1016/j.jss.2022.111510195:COnline publication date: 1-Jan-2023
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Sundermann CHeß TNieke MBittner PYoung JThüm TSchaefer I(2023)Evaluating state-of-the-art # SAT solvers on industrial configuration spacesEmpirical Software Engineering10.1007/s10664-022-10265-928:2Online publication date: 13-Jan-2023
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Young JBittner PWalkingshaw EThüm T(2023)Variational satisfiability solving: efficiently solving lots of related SAT problemsEmpirical Software Engineering10.1007/s10664-022-10217-328:1Online publication date: 1-Jan-2023
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Hentze MSundermann CThüm TSchaefer ISyriani ESahraoui H(2022)Quantifying the variability mismatch between problem and solution spaceProceedings of the 25th International Conference on Model Driven Engineering Languages and Systems10.1145/3550355.3552411(322-333)Online publication date: 23-Oct-2022
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Kahraman GCleophas LFelfernig AFuentes L(2022)A tool for modeling and analysis of relationships among feature model viewsProceedings of the 26th ACM International Systems and Software Product Line Conference - Volume B10.1145/3503229.3547076(103-109)Online publication date: 12-Sep-2022
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