Method and an apparatus for identifying an instance of a variability meta-model and performing a product instantiation

A method for performing a product instantiation on the basis of a variability meta model instance having variants (V) each describing an object of variation and variation points (VP) indicating a variability between the variants (V),

• wherein said method comprises the steps of:
• (a) generating a QOC-model instance of the product by
• (a1) providing a question on an instantiation for each variation point (VP) of the variability meta model instance;
• (a2) selecting automatically a subset of variants (V) of the respective variation point (VP) depending on constraint dependencies and on variability dependencies of the variability meta model instance;
• (a3) generating automatically an option for each variant (V) of the selected subset of said variants (V);
• (a4) and by eliciting criteria for the product instantiation and deriving arguments for the elicited criteria and generated options;
• (b) transforming the generated QOC-model instance for the product into a corresponding justification matrix (JM) which comprises for each combination of an option and of a criterion an argument indicating a justification of the respective option to fulfil the corresponding criterion;
• and
• (c) generating a decision for the provided question (Q) from the justification matrix (JM),
• wherein the decision comprises instantiated variants (V).

An apparatus identifying an instance of a variability meta-model (VMM) which models a variabilty in domain requirements,

• wherein said apparatus comprises:
• (a) means for providing at least one set of variants (V) each describing an object of variation having a corresponding variation point (VP) indicating a variability between said variants (V),
• wherein each variant (V) is connected to at least one domain requirement;
• (b) means for generating QOC-rationale model instances is related to said domain requirements;
• (c) means for deriving a justification matrix (JM) for each generated QOC-rational model instance;
• and
• (d) means for generating a decision for each justification matrix (JM),
• wherein each decision comprises a variability link element (VLE) which is included automatically into the variability model instance.

An apparatus for performing a product instantiation on the basis of a variability model instance having variants (V) each describing an object of variation and variation points (VP) indicating a variability between the variants (V), wherein said apparatus comprises:

• (d) means for generating a QOC-model instance of the product having:
• (a1) means for providing a question on an instantiation for each variation point (VP) of the variability meta-model instance;
• (a2) means for selecting automatically a sub-set of variants (V) of the respective variation point (VP) depending on constraint dependencies and on variability dependencies of the variability meta-model instance;
• (a3) means for generating automatically an option for each variant (V) of the selected sub-set of said variants (V);
• (a4) and means for eliciting criteria for the product instantiation and deriving arguments for the elicited criteria and generated options;
• (e) means for transforming the generated QOC-model instance for the product into a corresponding justification matrix (JM) which comprises for each combination of an option and of a criterion an argument indicating a justification of the respective option to fulfil the corresponding criterion;
• (f) means for generating a decision for the provided question (Q) from the justification matrix (JM),
• wherein the decision comprises instantiated variants (V).