A layout technique for class diagrams to be used in product configuration projects

For several companies the use of product configurators has produced a range of benefits such as minimising the use of resources and shortening the lead times in product specification processes. When developing a product configurator, two kinds of models are often created, namely analysis and design models. The task of describing product knowledge in analysis models involves domain experts, for which reason the analysis language has to be easily understandable in order to avoid extensive training. For this task the so-called Product Variant Master (PVM) diagramming technique is often applied. On the other hand, the requirements for the design language are more focused on having a formalised and rich language. For this task class diagrams are often applied. To avoid the use of different modelling languages in the analysis and design phase, this paper proposes and tests a layout technique that incorporates the usability of PVMs into class diagrams.