Towards a Feature Interaction Algebra

The composition (and configuration) of requirements is particularly important in feature specification because the units of incrementation in system development are themselves features. Thus we have requirements models made up of a large number of components, each of which is easy to specify and validate individually, but whose complexity resides in the semantics of composition, and configuration. We approach the definition of feature composition from the point of view of the client. Through our study of CS-1, we identify different ways in which the client would wish to compose their features with the plain old telephone service (POTS). From this we motivate the development of a feature composition algebra, the foundation of a feature interaction algebra. Quite simply, we hope to be able to perform a meta-analysis of the feature interaction problem using the feature classes rather than the features themselves. In this paper we show the type of meta-analysis that can lead to an algeb..