Feature-oriented nonfunctional requirement analysis for software product line

Abstract

Domain analysis in software product line (SPL) development provides a basis for core assets design and implementation by a systematic and comprehensive commonality/variability analysis. In feature-oriented SPL methods, products of the domain analysis are domain feature models and corresponding feature decision models to facilitate application-oriented customization. As in requirement analysis for a single system, the domain analysis in the SPL development should consider both functional and nonfunctional domain requirements. However, the nonfunctional requirements (NFRs) are often neglected in the existing domain analysis methods. In this paper, we propose a context-based method of the NFR analysis for the SPL development. In the method, NFRs are materialized by connecting nonfunctional goals with real-world context, thus NFR elicitation and variability analysis can be performed by context analysis for the whole domain with the assistance of NFR templates and NFR graphs. After the variability analysis, our method integrates both functional and nonfunctional perspectives by incorporating the nonfunctional goals and operationalizations into an initial functional feature model. NFR-related constraints are also elicited and integrated. Finally, a decision model with both functional and nonfunctional perspectives is constructed to facilitate application-oriented feature model customization. A computer-aided grading system (CAGS) product line is employed to demonstrate the method throughout the paper. © 2009 Springer.