Modeling Guide
Knowledge Guides /How Should Multiple Product Configurations Be Delivered? Align Models, Requirements, and Verification Materials
Last updated: · New Horizon Digital Outsourcing Team
Deliver configuration choices, derivation rules, and corresponding outputs for each product configuration. Identify shared and variable content, then reconcile model elements, requirements, and verification materials. Passing checks for one configuration supports only that configuration and its verified scope, not the entire product family.
Define Configuration Choices Explicitly
- List selectable features, allowed values, and combination constraints, specifying whether each choice affects component existence, parameter values, or references between objects. Similarly named configurations may have different interfaces or dependencies, so filenames alone should not define the product.
- Associate each choice with the model locations it affects and define separate treatment for unselected, unknown, and non-applicable choices. Record unresolved configurations rather than allowing an implicit default to conceal incomplete decisions.
Preserve the Complete Source before Derivation
- The complete source model retains variable content needed by the family, while a derived configuration contains the selected deliverables. Generate results in a separate copy or agreed branch, recording source, configuration, and rule versions so that derivation does not overwrite shared source content.
- Before generation, check dependencies and whether affected objects can be processed. Afterwards, identify retained, changed, removed, and unprocessed objects. If processing is partial, mark the result incomplete and describe the impact; producing a file does not establish a complete configuration delivery.
Reconcile Related Deliverables per Configuration
- Check that requirements, structure, interfaces, documentation, and verification items correspond to the selected configuration. After removing an optional component, inspect references and dependent checks so that documentation or verification lists do not continue to rely on an absent object.
- For shared verification evidence, determine whether inputs, interfaces, and applicability conditions still match. Identify separate checks for behavior affected by configuration choices, and retain configuration-to-evidence mappings so recipients can distinguish reusable results from required additional verification.
Check Regeneration with Representative Combinations
- Select a basic configuration, one containing optional features, and an input that violates a combination constraint, then compare each with its expected result. Choose samples according to risk and product scope; these checks do not replace coverage analysis for all required configurations.
- At handover, have the recipient regenerate outputs using the agreed source version, choices, and rules, comparing objects and properties. Retain the configuration manifest, dependencies, exceptions, and verification scope. Consistent regeneration makes the delivery process checkable but does not directly establish physical product performance.