Aspect-oriented analysis for product line architecture

In designing product-line architecture (PLA), it is important to analyze common and variable requirements in a product family. These requirements must be analyzed not only from functional aspect but also from aspects relate to quality attributes such as performance aspect and reliability aspect. For example, if two products are required to attain different level of performance, architectures for these products may be different, even if they provide the same functionality. In this paper, we propose aspect-oriented analysis method for PLA design, in which we analyze the requirements on products from each aspect separately. In the method, we pick up important factors for each quality attribute, and characterize the services in terms of the factors. Based on the characterization, we separate requirements relate to each quality attribute from original requirements. Using the method, we can examine architecture styles required for PLA from each aspect, that can make PLA design easier.