Aligning Software Configuration with Business and IT Context

Abstract

Abstract. An important activity to maximize Business/IT alignment is selecting a software configuration that fits a given context. Feature models represent the space of software configurations in terms of distinguished characteristics (features). However, they fall short in representing the effect of context on the adoptability and operability of features and, thus, of configurations. Capturing this effect helps to minimize the dependency on analysts and domain experts when deriving a software for a given business and IT environment. In this paper, we propose contextual feature models as a means to explicitly represent and reason about the interplay between the variability of both features and context. We devise a formal framework and automated analyses which enable to systematically derive products aligned with an organizational context. We also propose FM-Context, a support tool for modeling and analysis.

Adaptive software-based Feedback Acquisition: A Persona-based design

“…For example, the choice to include certain functionalities or a feature could be decided according to the nature of the domain and business needs and preferences. A feature or a collection of features may be only applicable in a certain business or technical context and under certain conditions [40]. Privacy-sensitive software, e.g.…”