Support for Collaborative Feature-Based Product Configuration in Software Product Lines

In Software Product Lines (SPLs), product configuration is a decision-making process in which a group of stakeholders indicate the features desired for a particular product (software). A feature model is normally used to represent the spectrum of available configuration decisions and thus works as a guide to the configuration process. Although in practice product configuration is seen as a collaborative activity that involves satisfying stakeholders with divergent interests and skills, current configuration technology is essentially single-userbased in which user requirements are interpreted and translated into configuration decisions by a single role referred to as the application engineer. As a consequence, product configuration becomes time-consuming and inaccurate especially in the case of large product lines. This technical report discusses a doctoral research proposal on Collaborative Product Configuration (CPC). The research aims at investigating the major challenges of realizing CPC in SPLs and, subsequently, at developing an approach that explicitly addresses the problems identified. CPC concepts, algorithms, and tool support are discussed and some preliminary experimental results are shown. The research is expected to bring contributions to the SPLs field by paving the way for a deeper understanding of collaborative product configuration, and ultimately by fostering the development of newer and better approaches in the future.