UML Notation Extensions for Product Line Architectures Modeling

The purpose of this paper is to define the extensions of the UML standard specification for the explicit representation of variations and their locations in software product line architectures based on a design method already established. The method will benefit a more familiar and widely used notation, facilitating a broader understanding of the architecture and enabling more extensive tool support for manipulating it. The description of the modeling constructs that manage variability represents a part of a profile of the extended or applied UML concepts intended primarily for use in modeling product-line architectures. These new constructs have to be used in combination with all the other UML modeling concepts and diagrams to provide a comprehensive modeling tool set.