The ARPA STARS program has provided funded considerable refinement of the Organization Domain Modeling (ODM) domain analysis method developed by Mark Simos (Organon Motives, Inc.). The current version of the ODM Guidebook [???] will receive one more substantial revision under the auspices of the STARS Program; the final version is expected to be completed by 2Q96.
As part of the newly restructured ODM, a series of supporting methods are defined that can be selected and tailored differently for each project. The selection or development of appropriate methods for representing commonality and variability is one of the most critical supporting methods for the success of a domain modeling project. The results of this working group will contribute quite directly toward a framework of this kind. The comparative framework would, ideally, be published in a separate technical report.
The interface between the core ODM method and the supporting method for taxonomic modeling will be documented in such a way that developers of other overall domain analysis methods and process models will be able to reference the same framework, independent of ODM. (This will depend, of course, on the degree to which the method in question does or does not embed binding choices about the representation technique to be used.) Similarly, the framework could be useful for other analytical tasks besides domain modeling in the context of support for software reuse, where modeling of commonality and variability is of importance.