Authors:
Alberto Rodrigues da Silva
and
João Costa Fernandes
Affiliation:
INESC-ID, Instituto Superior Técnico and Universidade de Lisboa, Portugal
Keyword(s):
Requirements Specification, Variability Modelling, Reusability, Software Product Line.
Related
Ontology
Subjects/Areas/Topics:
Enterprise Information Systems
;
Information Systems Analysis and Specification
;
Requirements Analysis And Management
Abstract:
Since software product lines emerged, various techniques have provided for commonality and variability
modelling of functionally similar products within a given domain. However, so far the emphasis of
variability modelling proposals has mostly been on the solution rather than the requirements level, which is
mainly due to stakeholders often associating variability with the software implementation instead of the
problem analysis. Taken into consideration the positive impact that a high-quality system requirements
specification plays within a software project, this paper proposes and evaluates an innovative approach for
the modelling and management of variability at the requirements level, based on the Common Variability
Language (CVL), the OMG proposal for a domain-independent variability modelling standard. This
approach has been implemented as a core feature of the ITBox system, a Web-based collaborative platform
for the management of technical documentation.