The role of similarity in detecting feature interaction in software product lines

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2019-01-01
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Khoshmanesh, Seyedehzahra
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Robyn R. Lutz
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Computer Science

Computer Science—the theory, representation, processing, communication and use of information—is fundamentally transforming every aspect of human endeavor. The Department of Computer Science at Iowa State University advances computational and information sciences through; 1. educational and research programs within and beyond the university; 2. active engagement to help define national and international research, and 3. educational agendas, and sustained commitment to graduating leaders for academia, industry and government.

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The Computer Science Department was officially established in 1969, with Robert Stewart serving as the founding Department Chair. Faculty were composed of joint appointments with Mathematics, Statistics, and Electrical Engineering. In 1969, the building which now houses the Computer Science department, then simply called the Computer Science building, was completed. Later it was named Atanasoff Hall. Throughout the 1980s to present, the department expanded and developed its teaching and research agendas to cover many areas of computing.

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1969-present

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Abstract

As a software product line evolves, it typically introduces new features and includes new products over time. A feature is a unit of functionality. Unwanted feature interactions, wherein one feature hinders another feature’s operation, are a significant problem, especially as large software product lines evolve. This can lead to failures, performance degradation, and hazardous states in a new product. Software product line developers currently identify new, unwanted feature interactions primarily in the testing of each new product. This incurs significant costs, comes late in development, and does not exploit the knowledge of prior feature interactions within a product line. The contribution of this thesis is to leverage knowledge of prior feature interactions in a software product line, together with similarity measures between the features in known feature interactions and the new features, in order to detect similar feature interactions in a new product much earlier in the development process. Results obtained from application of our approach to three small software product lines from the literature showed an accuracy of 69% to 73% and coverage of 71% to 82% in detecting feature interactions. This indicates that the use of similarity measures between features in a software product line can help detect potential feature interactions in the design phase of a newly added product.

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Sun Dec 01 00:00:00 UTC 2019