Variability dependencies in product family engineering

In a product family context, software architects anticipate product diversification and design architectures that support variants in both space (multiple contexts) and time (changing contexts). Product diversification is based on the concept of variability: a single architecture and a set of components support a family of products. Software product families need to support increasing amounts of variability, leading to a situation where variability dependencies become of primary concern. This paper discusses (1) a taxonomy of variability dependencies and (2) a case study in designing a program monitor and exception handler for a legacy system. The study shows that the types of variability dependencies in a system depend on how the system is designed and architected.