Feature-Oriented Software Engineering

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A software system is often thought of in terms of its constituent features, where each feature is an optional or incremental unit of functionality (e.g., undo, word count, and track changes are features in word processing software). Software developers use features as a criterion for decomposing their work into tasks that can be performed incrementally, in parallel, or by third-party vendors. Feature-oriented software engineering enables incremental development and rapid evolution of software systems. The downside is that integrating seemingly orthogonal features can result in feature interactions where one feature unexpectedly affects the behaviour of another (e.g., conflicting actions, emergent behaviours, violated assumptions). Interactions are common problems in feature-rich software products. As a notable example: in both of the Boeing 737 MAX aircraft crashes, a faulty input sensor led to multiple feature interactions in which the infamous MCAS feature overpowered other features related to the aircraft's pitch (including pilot-controlled features) and forced the aircraft into a nose dive. To be safe, software engineers need to manage how features behave when integrated together. This proposal investigates two avenues of research that address different aspects of the Feature Interaction Problem. The first focuses on establishing a precise system-wide analysis to detect feature interactions in large feature-rich software systems. Novel advancements will be analyses that (1) examine actual software rather than models or test results (2) are comprehensive in the types of interactions they detect, (3) scale to large software products, and (4) are adequately precise. The second research avenue pursues a more holistic approach to manage feature interactions, by means of a software architecture that the features plug into. The architecture coordinates and constrains how features can execute and communicate, thereby avoiding or resolving certain classes of interactions. An architectural solution to managing interactions has the potential of ensuring safe integration of features, thereby reducing the number of residual interactions that the engineer must detect and resolve. The result will be technologies and HQP trained in feature-oriented designs and analyses that realize the improvements in developer productivity and product quality that feature-oriented software engineering has always promised.