• Journal of KIISE:Software and Applications
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• v.34 no.4
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• pp.328-341
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• 2007

When the decision to initiate a software product line has been taken, the first step is the domain analysis describing the variability in the requirements, the second important step is the definition of a domain architecture that captures the overall structure of a series of closely related products. A domain architecture can be a core asset in product line by describing the commonalities and variabilities of the products contained in the software product line. The variabilities, which are identified at each phase of the core assets development, are diverse in the level of abstraction. Therefore, it is important to clearly define, systematically identify, and explicitly represent variability at the architectural level. However, it is difficult to identify and represent the variability which should be considered at the architecture level, because these may be appeared in architecture elements and in architecture configuration. In this paper, we suggest a method of developing domain architecture as a core asset in product line where commonality and variability are explicitly considered. First of all, we will describe a domain architecture metamodel that can explicitly define commonality and variability concepts by extending the Object Management Group's ($OMG^{TM}$ Reusable Asset Specification eRAS) model. Using the domain architecture metamodel, architecture elements are defined and the variations that can be identified at the architecture level are classified into two types in according th abstract level. Additionally, we describe a domain architecture where commonality and variability are explicitly considered on basis of this metamodel.