Variability representation in product lines using concept lattices: feasibility study with descriptions from Wikipedia's product comparison matrices

Abstract : Several formalisms can be used to express variability in a product line. Product comparison matrix is a common and simple way to display variability of existing products from a same family, but they lack of formalisation. In this paper, we focus on concept lattices, another alternative already explored in several works to express variability. We first propose a method to translate a description from existing product comparison matrices into a concept lattice using Formal Concept Analysis. Then, we propose an approach to represent the case where a product family is described by other product families with interconnected lattices using Relational Concept Analysis. Because of the combinatorial aspect of these approaches, we evaluate the scalability of the produced structures. We show that a particular structure (AOC-poset) possesses interesting properties for the studies that we envision.