Minimal Correction Subsets to explain dead features in Product Line Models. The case of the Models of Characteristics

Take advantage of benefits offered by the paradigm of product lines depends, among other things, of the quality of models that represent product lines. An important facet of quality is ensuring that the Product Line Models (PLMs) are free of defects. One type of defect is the dead features (i.e., features that cannot be used in any valid product). Product Line modelers need tools that help them to identify why features are dead and how to correct the model. However, even if several works exist in literature for identifying dead features, few of them explain why dead features appear or they provide incomplete explanations. In this paper, we propose a new method to explain why each dead feature occurs in PLMs expressed with the notation of feature models. Our explanation involves identifying different subsets of elements that could be modified to correct the model. This explanation provides the information to fix each dead feature.