A Petri Net Variability Model for Software Product Lines

Abstract

Variability is defined as the possibility that a system has to be ex-tended, changed, localized or configured in order to be used in a particular con-text. Variability specification in a software product line (SPL) is a main activity where product families are specified in terms of variants and dependencies. One way of defining the variability of a SPL is through a feature model (FM). How-ever the product families obtained can present feasibility problems, for instance, inclusion rules that can result contradictory which is translated in a set of fea-tures impossible to be incorporated into any product. Such inconveniences may come from the initial feature model developed as well from modifications in-troduced to satisfy new demands. In this paper a tool based on Petri nets is pro-posed in order to represent and analyse FMs as well as detecting the problems mentioned before.