Modeling variability in the component and connector view of architecture using UML

Modeling variability is a key aspect of variability management in software product families. Product line architecture (PLA) is one of the major assets of a product line, from which individual product architectures are derived. Consequently, modeling variability in architecture becomes an issue worthy of consideration. In this paper, we propose a variability modeling method which is specifically devised for the component and connector (C&C) view of architecture. We use UML 2 as the architecture modeling language. Modeling solutions are proposed and classified based on the type of variable element and the techniques used to realize variability. We have also studied the ways to avoid cluttering the view when including variability. An example case is utilized to clarify different aspects of our proposed method.