Cardinality-dependent Variability in Orthogonal Variability Models

During our work on developing and running a software product line for eco-sustainable greenhouse-production software tools, which currently have three products members we have identified a need for extending the notation of the Orthogonal Variability Model (OVM) to support what we refer to as cardinality range dependencies. The cardinality-range-dependency type enables expressing that the binding of a certain number of variants to a variation point can influence variability in other places in the model. In other words, we acknowledge that variability can be influenced, not necessarily by the specific variants being bound, but by their sheer numbers.

This paper contributes with an extension to the meta-model underlying the OVM notation, suggesting a notation for the new type of dependency and shows its applicability. The specific case, which initially required this extension, will work as running example throughout the paper and underline the need for the extension. Finally, the paper evaluates and discusses the general applicability of the proposed notation extension and future perspectives.