Using design rationale to improve SPL traceability

In order to improve SPL traceability by using design rationale, this chapter introduces the traceability analysis framework (TAF), which, when combined with the AMPLE Traceability Framework, provides extra traceability capabilities for variability management. The TAF is a programmable and extensible framework that aims to support the product line developers to understand the context, evolution and shortcomings in the design by means of the simulation of the design and the explanation of design rationale. Good expressiveness of the design rationale and the design issues is obtained by making the distinction between model-level semantics and method-level semantics clear and sepatately verifiable. Traceability is based on verifying both semantics, querying the design rationale and querying the model dependencies.