Weaving the model web: a multi-modeling approach to concepts and features in domain engineering

This paper describes an advance in understanding the semantics of concepts and features in domain modeling for software reuse, incorporated into Organization Domain Modeling (ODM) Version 2. Previous approaches to feature modeling, such as FODA, use a single model with a particular semantics (AND/OR linkages, constraints) and a specific feature typology. ODM V2 utilizes a multi-modeling approach based on Sigma, a mathematical formalism (developed at Synquiry) for reasoning about how multiple abstractions of sets of instances interrelate and combine to give a unified understanding of a subject. Sigma defines a number of semantic relationships that can hold between separate conceptual models linked into a larger model web. One of these inter-model relationships captures the needed semantics for a flexible and general notion of features within a domain modeling context. The paper describes previous approaches to feature modeling in domain engineering, ODM's goals of general applicability which created requirements for a different approach, and key elements of the Sigma approach and its application to domain concept and feature modeling.