66 Model-Driven Engineering of Information Systems
variation point is defi ned by an abstract class and a set of subclasses which
represent its variants. The abstract class is tagged with the <<variation>>
stereotype while the subclasses with <<variant>>. The UML profi le also
contains constraints which specify structural rules applicable to all models
tagged with a specifi c stereotype.
For sequence diagrams, variability is introduced through three con-
cepts: optionality, variation, and virtuality. The <<optional Lifeline>> and
<<optional Interaction>> stereotypes identify optional objects and inter-
actions in a sequence diagram. Variation refers to the existence of several
possible interaction variants and is specifi ed using the <<variation>> ...