Investigating the Application of Feature- Oriented Programming in the Development of DirectToHome Service Customer-Information Software Using Eclipse-FeatureIDE Environment

Designing business software for addressing rapidly changing requirements is a challenging task. Nowadays software evolution requires continuous adaptation, extension and customization. Object- Oriented Programming has proved to be inadequate in developing software using incremental approach. Feature-Oriented Programming (FOP) is a new emerging approach that relies on encapsulating features as increments over an existing base program, together with a mechanism for combining different features on demand.This research investigates the application of FOP methodology in development of DirectToHome (DTH) Service Customer-Information software: InfoDTH using Eclipse-FeatureIDE environment. This software provides information about the products and the services to the customer and records their queries. The investigation aims to reveal the usefulness of FOP methodology in design and implementation of business software. The study concludes that FOP methodology in Eclipse-FeatureIDE environment offers powerful support for modular design and implementation of real world quality business software with variable features. Integration of AOP concepts into FOP concepts can further improve the software evolution.