Automated analysis of feature models:: Challenges ahead

The issues related to advances in formalizing feature models and challenges in automating product specification and design are discussed. Features can be automatically deselected by numerical constraints such as performance. Various models have been developed for determining a minimal number of violated constraints for understanding the difficult problems. Model-driven development (MDD) incorporates mapping feature selections in a feature model into other development artifacts. SAT solver is used to verify that other program representations are consistent with this feature model. Artificial Intelligence (AI) configurators consider a product line of aircraft carriers. Each carrier may contain several different kinds of aircraft and each plane may be a member of a product line. The planes on a carrier impose constraints on the carrier's design. A web of customizable objects would be needed to describe a carrier. Besides this, AI configurators, tools that configure constellations of objects are also important for the analysis task.