Aspect-Oriented Analysis for Product Line Architecture

Abstract

In designing a product-line architecture (PLA), it is important to analyze common and variable requirements in a product family. These requirements must be analyzed not only from the functional aspect but also from aspects related to quality attributes such as performance and reliability. For example, if two products are required to attain different levels of performance, architectures for these products may be different even if they provide the same functionality. In this paper, we propose an aspect-oriented analysis method for PLA design in which we analyze product requirements from each aspect separately. In the method, we identify important factors for each quality attribute, and characterize the services in terms of the factors. Based on the characterization, we separate requirements related to each quality attribute from the original requirements. Using the method, we can examine the architecture styles required for a PLA from each aspect, which can make PLA design easier.