Towards More Flexible Configuration Systems: Enabling Product Managers to Implement Configuration Logic

Developing a configurator requires a deep understanding of the configurable product. The configuration logic must encompass the way product components may be combined and customized, as well as how the integrity of a configuration can be verified. When products evolve over time, the configurator must be adapted accordingly. Product Managers are intimately familiar with the features and capabilities of a product and drive its development. By enabling them to specify the configuration logic of a product, the time required to introduce new products or respond to changes in existing ones can be reduced significantly. In order to achieve this, an environment must be provided that facilitates the implementation of configuration logic in an efficient and intuitive manner. In this paper we try to identify the key aspects of such an environment and present our experiences in realizing a product configuration system based on our findings.