Exploring the Dimensions of Variability: a Requirements Engineering Perspective

Goal models have been found to be effective for representing and analyzing variability at the early requirements level, by comprehensibly representing all alternative ways by which stakeholders may wish to achieve their goals. Our study of goal models as instruments for acquiring and analyzing variability has showed that, focusing on one particular variability dimension, which in our case was the intentional one, allows better understanding of the identified variability and offers more opportunities for analysis and evaluation of alternatives. In this paper we explore other dimensions of variability that have emerged in our study of several areas, including autonomic computing, business process design and database design, and discuss how variability can be modeled and analyzed in each of these dimensions. Then we show how we can manage the variability space that emerges by putting together such dimensions and discuss the role of fitness criteria for identifying alternatives of inter...

• Type: Conference
• Year: 2007
• Where: VAMOS
• Authors: Sotirios Liaskos, Lei Jiang, Alexei Lapouchnian, Yiqiao Wang, Yijun Yu, Julio Cesar Sampaio do Prado Leite, John Mylopoulos
• Keywords: Early Requirements Level, Goal Models, Particular Variability Dimension, VAMOS 2007