Variability and Component Composition

In component-based product populations, feature models have to be described at the component level to be able to benefit from a product family approach. As a consequence, composition of components becomes very complex. We describe how component-level variability can be managed in the face of component composition. First, component variability and dependencies are described in a formal interface definition language. Secondly, these interfaces are checked for consistency by applying techniques from model checking. Thus, correct instantiation of product families by composition of components is guaranteed. The concepts and techniques presented here are the first step toward automated management of variability for web-based software delivery. 1998 ACM Computing Classification System: D.2.13, D.2.9, D.2.7, D.2.12