Paper Info
Title
Feature Diagrams: A Survey and a Formal Semantics
Abstract
Feature diagrams (FD) are a family of popular modelling languages used for engineering requirements in software product lines. FD were first introduced by Kang as part of the FODA (feature oriented domain analysis) method back in 1990, Since then, various extensions of FODA FD were devised to compensate for a purported ambiguity and lack of precision and expressiveness. However, they never received a proper formal semantics, which is the hallmark of precision and unambiguity as well as a prerequisite for efficient and safe tool automation, In this paper, we first survey FD variants. Subsequently, we generalize the various syntaxes through a generic construction called free feature diagrams (FFD). Formal semantics is defined at the FFD level, which provides unambiguous definition for ail the surveyed FD variants in one shot. All formalisation choices found a clear answer in the original FODA FD definition, which proved that although informal and scattered throughout many pages, it suffered no ambiguity problem. Our definition has several additional advantages: it is formal, concise and generic. We thus argue that it contributes to improve the definition, understanding, comparison and reliable implementation of FD languages
Year
DOI
Venue
2006
10.1109/RE.2006.23
Minneapolis/St. Paul, MN
Keywords
Field
DocType
formal specification,formal verification,engineering requirements,feature oriented domain analysis method,formal semantics,free feature diagrams,modelling languages,software product lines
Programming language,Feature-oriented domain analysis,Computer science,Requirements engineering,Theoretical computer science,Formal specification,Software,Feature model,Formal methods,Ambiguity,Formal verification
Conference
ISSN
ISBN
Citations 
1090-705X
978-0-7695-2555-6
226
PageRank 
References 
Authors
8.39
11
3
Search Limit
100226
Name
Order
Citations
PageRank
Pierre-Yves Schobbens12042104.80
Patrick Heymans22634136.40
Jean-christophe Trigaux343417.17