Concerns and their separation in feature diagram languages: An informal survey

Abstract

Feature diagrams describe valid configurations of features in a product. As feature diagrams play a central role in software product line development, several concerns are reflected in them, contributing to their increasing size and complexity. The way that those concerns are recognised and separated in feature diagrams affects our ability to manage them effectively. However, the nature of important concerns in software product line development, and the extent to which the separation of concerns is addressed by current research and practice is not clear. In this paper, we report on our initial survey of important concerns considered by feature diagram languages and guidelines for addressing those concerns.