Evaluating the Relative Importance of Product Line Features Using Centrality Metrics

Fathiya Mohammed, Mike Mannion, Hermann Kaindl, James Paterson

2024

Abstract

A software product line is a set of products that share a set of software features and assets, which satisfy the specific needs of one or more target markets. One common artefact of software product line engineering is a feature model, usually represented as a directed acyclic graph, which shows the product line as a set of structural feature relationships. We argue that there are benefits to considering a feature model as a directed graph and an undirected graph, respectively. One element of managing the impact of a change to these models, as they increase in complexity, is to evaluate the relative importance of the features. This paper explores the application of centrality metrics from social network analysis for the identification of the relative importance of features in feature models. The metrics considered are degree centrality, closeness centrality, eccentricity centrality, eigenvector centrality and between-ness centrality. To illustrate, a product feature model is constructed from a real-world GSMA AI-mobile phone product line requirements specification.

Paper Citation

in Harvard Style

Mohammed F., Mannion M., Kaindl H. and Paterson J. (2024). Evaluating the Relative Importance of Product Line Features Using Centrality Metrics. In Proceedings of the 19th International Conference on Software Technologies - Volume 1: ICSOFT; ISBN 978-989-758-706-1, SciTePress, pages 469-476. DOI: 10.5220/0012853300003753

in Bibtex Style

@conference{icsoft24,
author={Fathiya Mohammed and Mike Mannion and Hermann Kaindl and James Paterson},
title={Evaluating the Relative Importance of Product Line Features Using Centrality Metrics},
booktitle={Proceedings of the 19th International Conference on Software Technologies - Volume 1: ICSOFT},
year={2024},
pages={469-476},
publisher={SciTePress},
organization={INSTICC},
doi={10.5220/0012853300003753},
isbn={978-989-758-706-1},
}

in EndNote Style

TY - CONF

JO - Proceedings of the 19th International Conference on Software Technologies - Volume 1: ICSOFT
TI - Evaluating the Relative Importance of Product Line Features Using Centrality Metrics
SN - 978-989-758-706-1
AU - Mohammed F.
AU - Mannion M.
AU - Kaindl H.
AU - Paterson J.
PY - 2024
SP - 469
EP - 476
DO - 10.5220/0012853300003753
PB - SciTePress