Formalizing and Verifying Design Decisions in Single Systems and Software Product Lines

Abstract

A software system is designed to fulfill its functional and quality requirements. As the system is designed, the design issues that occur have to be solved by applying the appropriate design solutions. A design decision is taken for an occurrence of design issue by instantiating a design solution and customizing it to suit the context of that part of the system. The designers typically take into account functional requirements, quality attributes, occurrences of design issues, design solutions, and design decisions. All these form a complicated and ever changing web of information which is essential for making informed design decisions. I formalize the key aspects of the web of design information. I envision the use of my model as a basis for IDEs that can help developers in documenting and validating software design for single systems and SPLs. I also address the key challenges in building such IDEs.