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Evaluating the Usability of a Visual Feature Modeling Notation

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Software Language Engineering (SLE 2014)

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science ((LNPSE,volume 8706))

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Abstract

Feature modeling is a popular Software Product Line Engineering (SPLE) technique used to describe variability in a product family. A usable feature modeling tool environment should enable SPLE practitioners to produce good quality models, in particular, models that effectively communicate modeled information. FAMILIAR is a text-based environment for manipulating and composing Feature Models (FMs). In this paper we present extensions we made to FAMILIAR to enhance its usability. The extensions include a visualization of FMs, or more precisely, a feature diagram rendering mechanism that supports the use of a combination of text and graphics to describe FMs, their configurations, and the results of FM analyses. We also present the results of a preliminary evaluation of the environment’s usability. The evaluation involves comparing the use of the extended environment with the previous text-based console-driven version. The preliminary experiment provides some evidence that use of the new environment results in increased cognitive effectiveness of novice users and improved quality of new FMs.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Computer Science Department, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, USA

    Aleksandar Jakšić, Robert B. France & Sudipto Ghosh

  2. I3S - CNRS UMR 7271, Université Nice Sophia Antipolis, France

    Philippe Collet

Authors
  1. Aleksandar Jakšić
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  2. Robert B. France
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  3. Philippe Collet
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  4. Sudipto Ghosh
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. University of Rennes 1, IRISA, Inria,, France

    Benoît Combemale

  2. Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand

    David J. Pearce

  3. IRISA, Rennes, France

    Olivier Barais

  4. University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands

    Jurgen J. Vinju

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© 2014 Springer International Publishing Switzerland

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Jakšić, A., France, R.B., Collet, P., Ghosh, S. (2014). Evaluating the Usability of a Visual Feature Modeling Notation. In: Combemale, B., Pearce, D.J., Barais, O., Vinju, J.J. (eds) Software Language Engineering. SLE 2014. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 8706. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-11245-9_7

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-11245-9_7

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-11244-2

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-11245-9

  • eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)

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