Three-Level Customization of Software Products Using a Product Line Approach

Many office and enterprise business applications are overloaded with features. As a result users struggle in finding the functionality needed to support their tasks. Customization support for existing applications is often limited and hard to accomplish for end users. Software product lines provide support for customizing complex applications. However, they typically support vendors deriving customized products for customers from reusable components rather than supporting end users. In this paper we show how a decision-oriented software product line approach can support (1) software vendors deriving products for customers, (2) customers configuring products to the needs of specific user groups, and (3) end users personalizing a system to their needs. We describe tool support and illustrate the approach with a feasibility study.