Domain Modelling

DOMAIN MODELLING
LINGI2252 – PROF. KIM MENS
* These slides are part of the course LINGI2252 “Software Maintenance and Evolution”,
given by Prof. Kim Mens at UCL, Belgium
*

DOMAIN MODELLING
MAIN CAUSES OF MAINTENANCE PROBLEMS
Poor quality of the software documentation
Poor software quality (e.g., unstructured code, too large
components, inadequate design)
Insufﬁcient knowledge about the system and its domain
(maybe unavailable due to personnel turnover)
Ineffectiveness of maintenance team
low productivity, low motivation, low skill levels, competing
demands for programmer time
2
REMEMBER?
DOMAIN
ANALYSIS TO
THE RESCUE

A. DOMAIN ANALYSIS
* Material mostly based on Kang & al., Feature-Oriented Domain Analysis
(FODA): Feasibility Study, Technical Report CMU/SEI-90-TR-21, 1990
*

DOMAIN MODELLING – DOMAIN ANALYSIS
ASSEMBLY LINES
Factory assembly lines
are able to build a series 
of similar products in 
large quantities
Economies of scale: savings from using technology to
produce a greater volume of a single output with the same
or less inputs
4
* Slide based on slides by A. van Deursen, Domain Engineering, 2001
*

SOFTWARE PRODUCT LINES
Inspired by factory assembly lines
Software product lines (SPL)
are about building a family of software systems
sharing a common set of features
that satisfy the needs of a particular domain
Economies of scope: savings from using technology to build
a greater diversity of outputs with the same or less inputs
5
*

EXAMPLES OF DOMAINS
Window management systems (MSWindows, X windows, …)
Text or graphical editors
Television broadcast planning systems
Air trafﬁc control systems
Telephone switches
Insurance portals
On-line banking applications
* Example used in [Kang & al. 1990]
*
6

OBJECT-ORIENTED APPLICATION FRAMEWORKS
Particular implementation technique for building software families
Object-oriented application frameworks
Support reuse beyond the class level
by deﬁning a set of cooperating classes embodying an abstract design
that can be used to solve a family of related problems
Building a custom application from a framework is typically done through
class specialisation
Principle of inversion of control: framework calls the application code
MORE ON THIS LATER…
*
7
SNEAK PREVIEW

DOMAIN ANALYSIS
Captures domain knowledge of experts for related class of systems
Supports software reuse by capturing domain expertise and
understanding
Method for discovering and representing commonalities among
related software systems
e.g., common capabilities and data
Feature-Oriented Domain Analysis as particular domain analysis
technique
* [Prieto-Diaz1990] Ruben Prieto-Diaz, Domain Analysis: An Introduction.
ACM SIGSOFT Software Engineering Notes 15(2):47-54, April, 1990.
*
8

FEATURE-ORIENTED DOMAIN ANALYSIS (FODA)
Primary focus is the identiﬁcation of prominent or distinctive
features of software systems in a domain
Commonalities = what features all systems in the domain
have in common
Variabilities = distinguishing features between different
systems in the domain
Leads to the creation of a set of products that deﬁne the domain
Analysis of a product family, as opposed to a single product
* [Kang & al. 1990] Kang & al., Feature-Oriented Domain Analysis (FODA):
Feasibility Study, Technical Report CMU/SEI-90-TR-21, 1990
*
9

FEATURES
Features are "user-visible aspects or characteristics" of the
domain
Deﬁne both common aspects of (the systems in) a domain
As well as differences between related systems in the domain
Describe mandatory, optional, or alternative characteristics of
these related systems
10

LINK WITH SOFTWARE REUSE
Domain analysis provides a generic and reusable description
of the requirements of a class of systems.
Deﬁnes what is common across all systems in that domain.
These common features may be implemented as reusable
components that may be reused across different systems.
11

SOME TERMINOLOGY
Application : a system which provides a set of general services for solving
some type of user problem.
Context : the circumstances, situation, or environment in which a particular
system exists.
(Application) domain : a set of current and future applications which share a
set of common capabilities and data.
Domain analysis : The process of identifying, collecting, organizing, and
representing the relevant information in a domain based on the study of
existing systems and their development histories, knowledge captured from
domain experts, underlying theory, and emerging technology within the
domain.
* From [Kang & al. 1990]
*
12

SOME TERMINOLOGY
Domain engineering: An encompassing process which includes domain analysis and the
subsequent construction of components, methods, and tools that address the problems
of system development through the application of the domain analysis products.
Domain model: A deﬁnition of the functions, objects, data, and relationships in a
domain.
Feature: A prominent or distinctive user-visible aspect, quality, or characteristic of a
software system or systems.
User: Either a person or an application that operates a system in order to perform a task.
Reusable component: A software component (including requirements, designs, code,
test data, etc.) designed and implemented for the speciﬁc purpose of being reused.
* From [Kang & al. 1990]
*
13

DOMAIN ANALYSIS PROCESS
Three basic phases :
1. Context analysis deﬁnes the extent (or bounds) of the
domain under analysis
2. Domain modelling describes the problems to be
addressed by the software in the domain
3. Architecture modelling creates the overall software
architecture to implement a solution to the problems
in that domain
14

1. CONTEXT ANALYSIS
A domain analyst interacts with users and domain experts to
establish the bounds of the domain
The analyst gathers sources of information for performing
the analysis
The results of this phase deﬁne the scope of the analysis.
This requires identifying the primary inputs and outputs of
software in the domain as well as software interfaces
15

2. DOMAIN MODELING
A domain analyst uses information sources and other products of the context analysis to
support the creation of a domain model
Acquiring domain information: experts, legacy systems, literature, prototyping, …
Domain model is reviewed by the user, domain expert, and requirements analyst
Domain model can consist of several artefacts:
A feature model to describe the software features (commonality & variability)
A dictionary to define a standard lexicon of domain terminology
An entity-relationship diagram do document main software entities and their
relationships
Other diagrams to specify generic software requirements, like control flow or data flow
diagrams
16

3. ARCHITECTURE MODELLING
Using the domain model, the domain analyst then produces an
architecture model.
This model should be reviewed by the domain expert, the
requirements analyst, and the software engineer.
The user does not need to participate in this review.
Architecture model captures the overall structure of the
implementation of different software systems in the domain
different technologies possible: reusable components, domain-
speciﬁc languages, generators, application frameworks, …
17

SUMMARY
Context analysis (scope of domain)
Domain Model
Architectures
Implement
applications
in domain
Create reusable resources (designs,
components, etc.)
Domain
(representation
of problems in
domain)
(representation
of solutions in
domain)
New application New application
Domain
analysis
Tools and training
support
*
* Source: Figure 1-4, page 8 of Kang & al., Feature-
Oriented Domain Analysis (FODA): Feasibility
Study, Technical Report CMU/SEI-90-TR-21, 1990
18

B. FEATURE MODELLING

DOMAIN MODELLING – FEATURE MODELLING
FEATURE MODELLING
Used in domain analysis and software product lines (SPL)
to express the commonalities and variabilities of a family of
systems
in terms of the features they may offer
20

FEATURE MODEL
Consists of a hierarchy of features
Example:
21
Car
Transmission
Manual 
transmission
Automatic 
transmission
Engine Pulls trailerCar body
Electric Gasoline

Car
Transmission
Manual 
transmission
Automatic 
transmission
Electric Gasoline
FEATURE MODEL
Consists of a hierarchy of features
Plus variability (mandatory, optional, alternatives) :
Car
Manual 
transmission
Automatic 
transmission
Electric Gasoline
22
mandatory optional
alternative or
Transmission

FEATURE TYPES
Mandatory features = features that each system in
the domain must have
e.g., all cars must have a body, a transmission
and an engine
Optional features = features that a system may or
may not have
e.g., some cars have a hook to pull a trailer
23
Concept
or feature
Subfeature
Concept
or feature
Subfeature

FEATURE TYPES
Alternative features = features of which the
system can only have one at a time,
represents an XOR between features
e.g., every car must have either a manual or an
automatic transition, but cannot have both at
the same time
OR features = features of which the system can
have one or more
at least one, but several are possible too
e.g., a car can have an electric engine or run on
gasoline; it can even have both if it’s a hybrid
24
Concept
opt. 
feature
opt. 
feature
alternative
Concept
opt. 
feature
opt. 
feature
or

TOOL SUPPORT
Tool support : FeatureIDE
an Eclipse plug-in for FOSD
25

FEATURE DEPENDENCIES
“requires” or “implies”
when the inclusion of one feature depends on the inclusion of another
(a mandatory feature is a special case of this, but implication relations
could also exist between more distant features in the feature hierarchy)
“mutual exclusion”
when two features cannot co-exist
(an XOR is a special case of this, but mutual exclusions could also exist
between more distant features in the feature hierarchy)
or more generic constraints deﬁned in terms of Boolean operators
26

TOOL SUPPORT FOR DEPENDENCIES
FeatureIDE supports constraints: not, and, or, implies, iff, ()
FeatureIDE tool (supposedly) even checks for redundant constraints
27

FEATURE MODEL : ANOTHER SIMPLE EXAMPLE
Feature model of an e-shop software product line
28
For some reason FeatureIDE seems to
ﬂag the addition constraints as a
“redundant” constraint.

FEATURE MODEL
parent feature, with an arc drawn through all of the options, as is the case in
windowLayout. The arc signifies that one and only one of those features must be chosen.
The remaining features with no special notation are all mandatory.
The line drawn between a child feature and a parent feature indicates that a child feature
requires its parent feature to be present; if the parent is not marked as valid, then the child
feature for that system is in essence "unreachable." For example, if the windowLayout
were selected to be overlappedLayout, then the feature tiledColumns would be
"unreachable" for that specific system, since its parent tiledLayout would not be valid.
interiortiled
tiled
Layout
MoveOp
abort
Input
move
border
Icon
move
Feedback
interactive
Feedback
ghost
Feedback
opaque
moveResizeFeedback
erase
AfterBefore
erase
Erasure
move
Move
After
exposepartially
OffScreen
Move
Configuration
windowzapEffect
constrained
Move
windowLayout
overlapped
Layout
tiled
Columns Arbitrary
Figure 7-6: Features for the Window Manager Move Operation
To illustrate the use of the feature diagram Figure 7-7 shows a comparison of the move
*
* Source: Fig. 7-6, page 64 of Kang & al., Feature-
29
A slightly more 
elaborate example

systems straightforward. Certain types of information are more difficult to obtain from such a
display, such as knowledge of invalid feature combinations or underlying issues and
rationales. These types of information are discussed in the next two sections.
windowLayout
windowLayout
interior
interior
ArbitraryColumns
tiled
Layout
overlapped
Move
constrained
zapEffect window
Configuration
OffScreen
partially expose
After
Move
move
Erasure
erase
Before After
erase
moveResizeFeedback
opaque
Feedback
ghost
Feedback
interactive
Feedback
move
Icon
border
move
Input
abort
MoveOp
Layout
tiled
tiled
Move
X10/uwm
tiled
tiled
Layout
MoveOp
abort
Input
move
border
Icon
move
Feedback
interactive
Feedback
ghost
Feedback
opaque
moveResizeFeedback
erase
AfterBefore
erase
Erasure
move
Move
After
exposepartially
OffScreen
Configuration
windowzapEffect
constrained
Move
overlapped
Layout
tiled
Columns Arbitrary
SunView
Move
Figure 7-7: Comparison of Move Operation Features in X10/uwm and SunView
FEATURE MODEL
*
* Source: Fig. 7-7, page 65 of Kang & al., Feature-
30

FEATURE MODEL SEMANTICS
The semantics of a feature model is its set of valid
configurations
A configuration is an instance of the feature model with a set
of features selected
A configuration is valid if it respects the semantics imposed
by the dependencies and constraints, e.g.
mandatory features must be selected; optional features
may be selected; exactly one must be selected for x-or; etc.
31

Car
Transmission
Manual 
transmission
Automatic 
transmission
Electric Gasoline
FEATURE MODEL CONFIGURATION
In our car feature model, a conﬁguration represents a
particular car
Here’s a valid conﬁguration:
Car
Manual 
transmission
Automatic 
transmission
Electric Gasoline
32
Transmission

Car
Transmission
Manual 
transmission
Automatic 
transmission
Electric Gasoline
FEATURE MODEL CONFIGURATION
Here’s an invalid conﬁguration
Why?
Car
Manual 
transmission
Automatic 
transmission
Electric Gasoline
33
Transmission

FEATURE MODEL SEMANTICS
A feature model is inconsistent if it has no valid configurations
Two feature models are equivalent if they have the same set of
valid configurations
A commonality is a feature that appears in all of the model’s
valid configurations
A variability is a feature that appears only in some of the
configurations
i.e., optional, alternatives or or-features
34

DOMAIN MODELLING
LEARNING OBJECTIVES
▸ software product line
▸ economy of scope
▸ domain analysis
▸ feature-oriented domain analysis
▸ link with software reuse
▸ feature
▸ commonality
▸ variability
▸ domain analysis process
▸ feature model
▸ feature types (mandatory,
obligatory, ...)
▸ feature dependencies
▸ FeatureIDE tool
▸ feature model semantics

DOMAIN MODELLING
FURTHER READING
Ruben Prieto-Diaz, Domain Analysis: An Introduction. ACM
SIGSOFT Software Engineering Notes 15(2):47-54, April, 1990.
Kang & al., Feature-Oriented Domain Analysis (FODA):
Feasibility Study, Technical Report CMU/SEI-90-TR-21, 1990
Czarnecki & Eisenecker, Generative programming: Methods,
Tools and Applications, Addison Wesley, 2000
Chapter 2: Domain Engineering; Chapter 4: Feature
Modeling; and examples in Chapters 12, 13 & 14.
37

DOMAIN MODELLING
POSSIBLE QUESTIONS
▸ Define, in your own words, what a software product line is.
▸ Explain, in your own words, the difference between economies of scale and economies of scope, in the
context of software product lines.
▸ Explain the main purpose of domain analysis.
▸ What is the goal of feature-oriented domain analysis? What is a feature? How does this relate to software
product lines?
▸ Wat is the link between feature-oriented domain analysis and software reuse?
▸ Explain and discuss the different phases of the domain analysis process.
▸ Explain and illustrate the feature modelling notation (and different kinds of feature types and feature
dependencies).
▸ What is a configuration of a feature model? When is a configuration said to be valid? Explain and illustrate
on an example. When is a feature model said to be inconsistent?
▸ Explain, in your own words, the notions of commonality and variability in the context of feature modelling.

Domain Modelling

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