A conceptual basis for feature engineering

Abstract

The gulf between the user and the developer perspectives lead to difficulties in producing successful software systems. Users are focused on the problem domain, where the system's features are the primary concern. Developers are focused on the solution domain, where the system's life-cycle artifacts are key. Presently, there is little understanding of how to narrow this gulf. This paper argues for establishing an organizing viewpoint that we term feature engineering. Feature engineering promotes features as first-class objects throughout the software life cycle and across the problem and solution domains. The goal of the paper is not to propose a specific new technique or technology. Rather, it aims at laying out some basic concepts and terminology that can be used as a foundation for developing a sound and complete framework for feature engineering. The paper discusses the impact that features have on different phases of the life cycle, provides some ideas on how these phases can be improved by fully exploiting the concept of feature, and suggests topics for a research agenda in feature engineering.