On the Relation between Internal and External Feature Interactions in Feature-Oriented Product Lines A Case

The feature-interaction problem has been explored for many years. Still, we lack sufficient knowledge about the interplay of different kinds of interactions in software product lines. Exploring the rela-tions between different kinds of feature interactions will allow us to learn more about the nature of interactions and their causes. This knowledge can then be applied for improving existing approaches for detecting, managing, and resolving feature interactions. We present a framework for studying relations between different kinds of interactions. Furthermore, we report and discuss the results of a preliminary study in which we examined correlations between internal feature interactions (quantified by a set of software mea-sures) and external feature interactions (represented by product-line-specific type errors). We performed the evaluation on a set of 15 feature-oriented, JAVA-based product lines. We observed mod-erate correlations between the interactions under discussion. This gives us confidence that we can apply our approach to studying other types of external feature interactions (e.g., performance inter-actions)