Variability Modeling for Product Line Viewpoints Integration

Modern software product line development uses viewpoints to capture the needs of various stakeholders without resorting to a single complex model. Comparing and integrating different viewpoints help to gain insights into the product line and to derive products. Recent research has proposed conflict resolution rules for handling variability in the integration process. However, one benefit viewpoints bring is to tolerate inconsistency until the rationales about variability are better understood. In this paper, we propose a method for modeling variability when product line viewpoints are consolidated. Our method takes advantage of a lattice ordering to support late binding of variability and stakeholder traceability. We apply our method to viewpoints derived from the mobile phone domain, and show how delayed commitment can support product line evolution and product derivation.

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