Feature models are widely used in domain engineering to capture
common and variant concepts among systems in a particular domain. However,
the lack of a formal semantics of feature models has hindered the development
of this area. This paper presents a Semantic Web environment for modeling and
verifying feature diagrams using ontologies. We use OWL DL (a decidable di-
alect of OWL) to precisely capture the relationships among features in feature
diagrams and configurations. OWL reasoning engines such as RACER are de-
ployed to check for the inconsistencies of feature configurations fully automati-
cally. As part of the environment, we also develop a CASE tool to facilitate the
visual development, interchange and reasoning of feature diagrams represented
as ontologies.
