Towards More Reliable Configurators: A Re-engineering Perspective

Quentin Boucher; Ebrahim Khalil Abbasi; Arnaud Hubaux; Gilles Perrouin; Mathieu Acher; Patrick Heymans

hal-00718278, version 1

Towards More Reliable Configurators: A Re-engineering Perspective

Quentin Boucher (, )^a^, 1, Ebrahim Khalil Abbasi^a^, 1, Arnaud Hubaux^a^, 1, Gilles Perrouin^a^, 1, Mathieu Acher^a^, 1, Patrick Heymans (, ) ^{1, 2, 3, 4}

International Workshop on Product Line Approaches in Software Engineering (PLEASE) (2012) 29-32

Abstract: Delivering configurable solutions, that is products tailored to the requirements of a particular customer, is a priority of most B2B and B2C markets. These markets now heavily rely on interactive configurators that help customers build complete and correct products. Reliability is thus a critical requirement for configurators. Yet, our experience in industry reveals that many configurators are developed in an ad hoc manner, raising correctness and maintenance issues. In this paper, we present a vision to re-engineering more reliable configurators and the challenges it poses. The first challenge is to reverse engineer from an existing configurator the variability information, including complex rules, and to consolidate it in a variability model, namely a feature model. The second challenge is to forward engineer a new configurator that uses the feature model to generate a customized graphical user interface and the underlying reasoning engine.

a – University of Namur
1: PReCISE Research Centre in Information Systems Engineering (PReCISE)
Facultés Universitaires Notre Dame de la Paix (FUNDP) - Namur
2: ADAM (INRIA Lille - Nord Europe)
INRIA – CNRS : UMR8022 – Université Lille I - Sciences et technologies
3: Université Lille 1 - Sciences et technologies
Université Lille I - Sciences et technologies – PRES Université Lille Nord de France
4: Laboratoire d'Informatique Fondamentale de Lille (LIFL)
CNRS : UMR8022 – Université Lille I - Sciences et technologies – Université Lille III - Sciences humaines et sociales – INRIA

hal-00718278, version 1
http://hal.inria.fr/hal-00718278
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From: Patrick Heymans <>
Submitted on: Monday, 16 July 2012 15:30:22
Updated on: Monday, 16 July 2012 15:53:19

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DOI: 10.1109/PLEASE.2012.6229766

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%% hal-00718278, version 1
%% http://hal.inria.fr/hal-00718278
@inproceedings{boucher:hal-00718278,
    hal_id = {hal-00718278},
    url = {http://hal.inria.fr/hal-00718278},
    title = {{Towards More Reliable Configurators: A Re-engineering Perspective}},
    author = {Boucher, Quentin and Abbasi, Ebrahim Khalil and Hubaux, Arnaud and Perrouin, Gilles and Acher, Mathieu and Heymans, Patrick},
    abstract = {{Delivering configurable solutions, that is products tailored to the requirements of a particular customer, is a priority of most B2B and B2C markets. These markets now heavily rely on interactive configurators that help customers build complete and correct products. Reliability is thus a critical requirement for configurators. Yet, our experience in industry reveals that many configurators are developed in an ad hoc manner, raising correctness and maintenance issues. In this paper, we present a vision to re-engineering more reliable configurators and the challenges it poses. The first challenge is to reverse engineer from an existing configurator the variability information, including complex rules, and to consolidate it in a variability model, namely a feature model. The second challenge is to forward engineer a new configurator that uses the feature model to generate a customized graphical user interface and the underlying reasoning engine.}},
    keywords = {Configuration , Graphical User Interface , Re-engineering},
    language = {English},
    affiliation = {PReCISE Research Centre in Information Systems Engineering - PReCISE , ADAM - INRIA Lille - Nord Europe , Universit{\'e} Lille 1 - Sciences et technologies , Laboratoire d'Informatique Fondamentale de Lille - LIFL},
    booktitle = {{International Workshop on Product Line Approaches in Software Engineering (PLEASE)}},
    publisher = {IEEE},
    pages = {29-32},
    address = {Zurich, Switzerland},
    audience = {international },
    doi = {10.1109/PLEASE.2012.6229766 },
    year = {2012},
    month = Jun,
}

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