Using Integer Constraint Solving in Reuse Based Requirements Engineering

Abstract

International audienceProduct Lines (PL) have proved an effective approach to reuse-based systems development. Several modeling languages were proposed so far to specify PL. Although they can be very different, these languages show two common features: they emphasize (a) variability, and (b) the specification of constraints to define acceptable configurations. It is now widely acknowledged that configuring a product can be considered as a constraint satisfaction problem. It is thus natural to consider constraint programming as a first choice candidate to specify constraints on PL. For instance, the different constraints that can be specified using the FODA language can easily be expressed using boolean constraints, which enables automated calculation and configuration using a SAT solver. But constraint programming proposes other domains than the boolean domain: for instance integers, real, or sets. The integer domain was, for instance, proposed by Benavides to specify constraints on feature attributes. This paper proposes to further explore the use of integer constraint programming to specify PL constraints. The approach was implemented in a prototype tool. Its use in a real case showed that constraint programming encompasses different PL modeling languages (such as FORE, OVM, or else), and allows specifying complex constraints that are difficult to specify with these languages

Stakeholders' social interaction in requirements engineering of open source software

“…Lutz and colleagues [115] presented an approach that performed KAOS Obstacle Analysis to explore requirements in a space defined by obstacles for a safety-critical, autonomous system. Salinesi et al [167] proposed a prototype tool that performed requirements-based product configurations within constraints. This tool discovered various permitted features for a new product in a product line.…”

Using constraint programming to verify DOPLER variability models

“…Product line requirements can be easily expressed in terms of constraints over integers. We decided to use GNU Prolog to solve the resulting constraints for several reasons: (i) constraints can be expressed in a very declarative way [17] thanks to the Prolog layer and to a wide variety of predefined constraints; (ii) the GNU Prolog constraint solver is very efficient; and (iii) this system is developed by our team.…”

Exploring Software Product Management decision problems with constraint solving - opportunities for prioritization and release planning

“…feature modeling [15], program comprehension [16], testing [17], and hardware synthesis [11]. In particular, CSP has also been applied in requirements engineering by Salinesi et al [18], [19] where constraint solving is used in a product line engineering context. Salinesi et al use constraints to express feature models and apply constraint solving to find a set of features that satisfies the feature model, with respect to selected or excluded features according to the variation points of the feature model.…”