FEATURE ASSEMBLY MODELLING - A New Technique for Modelling Variable Software

Abstract Feature . A Feature represents a concrete logical or physical unit or characteristic of the system . An Abstract Feature is a feature which is not concrete; rather it is a generalization of more specific features (concrete or abstract ones). Figure 1.a shows the notations used to represent both feature types. How the features are assembled together to model the system is specified via feature relations . We define two types of feature relations: composition relation and generalization/specification relation . The composition relation is used to express the whole-part relation; i.e. a feature is composed of one or more fine-grained features. The composition can be mandatory or optional . Figure 1.b shows the composition relation notation. The generalization/ specification relation is used only in combination with abstract features and allow specifying possible (concrete or abstract) Option Features of an abstract feature. Figure 1.c shows the generalization/ specification notation. In terms of variability, an abstract feature represents a