Identifying Traceability between Feature Model and Software Architecture in Software Product Line using Formal Concept Analysis

Abstract

Feature models have been used to support requirements analysis and domain engineering in Software Product Line. By identifying the mapping between feature model and architecture model by capturing the relationships among elements in the models, we can establish the traceability between the two models. The identified traceability can be used to verify consistency between feature model and architecture model. On small scale models, the relationships among elements can be easily identified by manually analyzing the descriptions of models. But when the complexity of a model is high, a more formal approach will be useful to help identifying the traceability. In this paper, we develop an approach to identify traceability between feature model and component and connector view of software architecture using formal concept analysis (FCA) technique. This technique constructs a concept lattice structure. We propose several analysis criteria for concept lattice structure to identify traceability between the two models.