Software feature

Menu showing a list of available features in the X Window System terminal emulator program xterm

A feature is "a prominent or distinctive user-visible aspect, quality, or characteristic of a software system or systems", as defined by Kang et al.^[1] At the implementation level, "it is a structure that extends and modifies the structure of a given software in order to satisfy a stakeholder’s requirement, to implement and encapsulate a design decision, and to offer a configuration option", as defined by Apel et al.^[2]

^ "Feature-Oriented Domain Analysis (FODA) Feasibility Study". insights.sei.cmu.edu. 1990-10-31. Retrieved 2025-02-18.
^ Apel, Sven; Kästner, Christian (August 2009). "An Overview of Feature-Oriented Software Development". The Journal of Object Technology. 8 (5): 49–84. doi:10.5381/jot.2009.8.5.c5. S2CID 417250.

[1] "Feature-Oriented Domain Analysis (FODA) Feasibility Study". insights.sei.cmu.edu. 1990-10-31. Retrieved 2025-02-18.

[2] Apel, Sven; Kästner, Christian (August 2009). "An Overview of Feature-Oriented Software Development". The Journal of Object Technology. 8 (5): 49–84. doi:10.5381/jot.2009.8.5.c5. S2CID 417250.

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