A framework for functional feature and crosscutting concern modelling in software product lines

Software product line engineering is a paradigm for promoting systematic software reuse. A feature model is a common means used to illustrate the commonality and variability of software products in a family. Two key elements in feature models are the features and the relationships among these features. In most existing feature model extraction approaches, keywords in the requirement document or certain types of system behaviour or external events are considered to be features; thus, the resulting feature model is a combination of user activities and system actions, making it hard for this model to be used in the following development. Moreover, in an industrial environment, a feature model tends to grow large, with complicated relationships embedded, which makes it hard to generate, update and maintain. Crosscutting concern is another way to model the relationship between entities in a software product line, and many of the important considerations, such as hardware considerations, running environment considerations etc., could be considered and modelled as crosscutting concerns, thus better describing the dependency among the features of the software product lines. We present a framework to generate a product line feature model from multiple requirement documents for a Software Product Line. We consider user activities and system actions separately in our approach and focus on the expected behaviours of the software system. We also identify the crosscutting concerns from these requirement documents. The resulting feature model clearly illustrates the expected functionalities of the software system and their variability in the product line. We also engaged crosscutting concerns to model the relationships among features. Our approach will result in better modelling of features and their relationship, thus a better model for product derivation and change management in software product line engineering.