1. Comparing or Configuring Products: Are We
Getting the Right Ones?
Product
Author
First Name
Last Name
Age
Nat.
Ph.D.?
Posit.
Affil.
Spoken
Lang
Nicolas
Sannier
32
French
Yes
Postdoc
Inria
French,
English,
Reunion
Isl. creole
Guillaume
Bécan
23
French
Not yet
PhD student
University of
Rennes 1
French,
English
Mathieu
Acher
29
French
Yes
Associate
Prof.
University of
Rennes 1, Inria,
IRISA
French,
English
Sana
Ben Nasr
-
Tunisian
Not yet
PhD student
Inria
Arabic,
French,
English
Benoit
Baudry
-
French
Yes
Research
Scientist,
Head of
Triskell team
Inria
French,
English

2. VaMoS'2014 - Sannier, Bécan, Acher, Ben Nasr and Baudry – PCMs, VMs and Configurators
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3. Comparator
http://www.autonet.ca/comparenewvehicles#comparenewvehicles-tabs
VaMoS'2014 - Sannier, Bécan, Acher, Ben Nasr and Baudry – PCMs, VMs and Configurators
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4. Configurator
http://www.toyota.ca/toyota/en/build-price/
VaMoS'2014 - Sannier, Bécan, Acher, Ben Nasr and Baudry – PCMs, VMs and Configurators
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5. Pros and cons
Comparators
Configurators
Intuitive and easy to understand
Allow to customize a product
Immediate view of differences
between the compared products
Guidance capabilities
Interaction effort is minimal
Force the user to choose a subset of
products to compare (usually 2 or 3)
Configuration steps are hardwired
Not all features are presented
Features are presented in a
predefined and fixed order
User effort can be significant
VaMoS'2014 - Sannier, Bécan, Acher, Ben Nasr and Baudry – PCMs, VMs and Configurators
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6. Comparators and configurators commonalities
Different pros and cons
BUT
Common goal: choosing a product
Both operate on product descriptions
Product
Comparison
Matrix
VaMoS'2014 - Sannier, Bécan, Acher, Ben Nasr and Baudry – PCMs, VMs and Configurators
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7. Product Comparison Matrices (PCMs) as inputs…
- for comparators
- for configurators
300+ PCMs in Wikipedia
thousands on the web
VaMoS'2014 - Sannier, Bécan, Acher, Ben Nasr and Baudry – PCMs, VMs and Configurators
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8. Long term vision
Generating product comparators and configurators from PCMs
PCM
Comparator
Configurator
VaMoS'2014 - Sannier, Bécan, Acher, Ben Nasr and Baudry – PCMs, VMs and Configurators
-8

9. From Comparison Matrix to Variability Model
(Sannier et al., ASE’13)
1. Boolean yes/no answers
2. Partial/constrained yes/no answers
3. Single-value answers
4. Multiple values answers
5. “Unknown” answers
6. Empty cells
7. Inconsistent cells
8. Additional / Extra information
• 75-80% of the PCMs content is
manageable as usual by variability
constructs
• 20-25% remaining represent
uncertainty or numerical values
Calls for more research for modeling and reasoning about variability
VaMoS'2014 - Sannier, Bécan, Acher, Ben Nasr and Baudry – PCMs, VMs and Configurators
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10. Issues and Challenges
Product Comparison Matrices (PCMs)
Heterogeneous information, lack of formalization, ad-hoc
PCMs (Sannier et al., ASE’13)
The larger the PCM is, the less it is readable and
understandable : “more is less”
No automated support,
guidance capabilities
VaMoS'2014 - Sannier, Bécan, Acher, Ben Nasr and Baudry – PCMs, VMs and Configurators
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11. Issues and Challenges
Product Comparison Matrices (PCMs)
VaMoS'2014 - Sannier, Bécan, Acher, Ben Nasr and Baudry – PCMs, VMs and Configurators
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12. Long term vision
Generating product comparators and configurators from PCMs
PCM
Comparator
Configurator
VaMoS'2014 - Sannier, Bécan, Acher, Ben Nasr and Baudry – PCMs, VMs and Configurators
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13. Long term vision
Generating product comparators and configurators from variability models
and PCMs
Developers
Synthesis of VMs from PCMs
Automated reasoning on VMs
Framework for building comparators and configurators
PCM
Editor
Contributors
PCM editor with:
• Support for defining variability
• Consistency checking
• Export to CSV or Wikipedia format
Variability
Model
Comparator
Configurator
End users
User friendly comparators and configurators
No hidden configuration or feature
Better understanding of constraints
Better usability
VaMoS'2014 - Sannier, Bécan, Acher, Ben Nasr and Baudry – PCMs, VMs and Configurators
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14. Research questions
RQ1
Variability
Model
PCM
Editor
Comparator
Configurator
RQ1: What is the syntax and semantics of PCMs?
- Variability patterns observed in Sannier et al., ASE’13 need to be refined and
formalized.
- What is the semantics of coma-separated values?
- What does mean an empty value when choosing a product?
Output: empirical study on real-world PCMs.
VaMoS'2014 - Sannier, Bécan, Acher, Ben Nasr and Baudry – PCMs, VMs and Configurators
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15. Research questions
RQ1
Variability
Model
PCM
RQ2
Editor
Comparator
Configurator
RQ2: What are the issues faced by end-users when exploiting a PCM?
- Overwhelming amount of information (too much products or criteria)?
- Imprecise information?
- Unclear semantics?
Output: usability study
VaMoS'2014 - Sannier, Bécan, Acher, Ben Nasr and Baudry – PCMs, VMs and Configurators
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16. Research questions
RQ1
Variability
Model
PCM
RQ2
RQ3
Editor
Comparator
Configurator
RQ3: How to specify and maintain a PCM?
- Considerable effort on spreadsheets (Panko et al., 2008, Abraham et al.,
2007, Cunha et al., 2011, Hermans et al., 2012).
- PCMs can be seen as a special form of spreadsheets but none of these works
considered the variability they contain.
Output: domain-specific editor for specifying PCMs
VaMoS'2014 - Sannier, Bécan, Acher, Ben Nasr and Baudry – PCMs, VMs and Configurators
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17. Research questions
RQ4
RQ1
Variability
Model
PCM
RQ2
RQ3
Editor
Comparator
Configurator
RQ4: How to synthesize variability models from PCMs?
- Numerical values and uncertainty?
- Scalability?
- User’s input is needed to disambiguate PCMs
Output: supervised and tool-supported techniques
VaMoS'2014 - Sannier, Bécan, Acher, Ben Nasr and Baudry – PCMs, VMs and Configurators
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18. Research questions
RQ4
RQ1
PCM
Variability
Model
RQ2
RQ3
Editor
RQ5
Comparator
Configurator
RQ5: How to generate configurators or comparators from variability models?
- How to reason on variability models for comparison and configuration?
- How to encourage developers to respect good practices (Abbasi et al., 2013,
Trentin et al., 2013) ?
Output: engineering techniques for generating comparators and configurators
VaMoS'2014 - Sannier, Bécan, Acher, Ben Nasr and Baudry – PCMs, VMs and Configurators
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19. Research questions
RQ4: synthesis
O4: supervised and toolsupported techniques
RQ1: formalization
O1: empirical study
Variability
Model
PCM
RQ2: scalability limits
O2: usability study
Editor
RQ3: specification and
maintenance
O3: domain-specific editor
Comparator
Configurator
RQ5: customized generation
O4: engineering and reasoning
techniques
VaMoS'2014 - Sannier, Bécan, Acher, Ben Nasr and Baudry – PCMs, VMs and Configurators
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20. Compare and Choose your Answerer!
Look at the Author Comparison Matrix and Choose
Ask your questions ;-)
Product
Author
First Name
Last Name
Age
Nat.
Ph.D.?
Posit.
Affil.
Spoken
Lang
Nicolas
Sannier
32
French
Yes
Postdoc
Inria
French,
English,
Reunion
Isl. creole
Recovering from his PhD
Guillaume
Bécan
23
French
Not yet
PhD student
University of
Rennes 1
French,
English
Mathieu
Acher
29
French
Yes
Associate
Prof.
University of
Rennes 1, Inria,
IRISA
French,
English
Sana
Ben Nasr
-
Tunisian
Not yet
PhD student
Inria
Arabic,
French,
English
Baudry
-
French
Yes
Research
Scientist,
Head of
Triskell team
Inria
French,
English
N/A
Benoit
N/A
VaMoS'2014 - Sannier, Bécan, Acher, Ben Nasr and Baudry – PCMs, VMs and Configurators
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