Software Engineering Institute

This report is the second in a series to establish a strategy for creating and managing a component product line (CPL); to define a modeling approach for specifying components; and to describe a governance method for making decisions to select a product line, determine the feature sets, and maintain the supplier–user relationship. The strategy considers who creates models, how they are represented, who uses them, and how they are evaluated for use. This report introduces the concept of a “model chain” to describe the models used in specifying a CPL. The model chain concept extends to show relationships between models, how they evolve, and the realization of architecture requirements through the creation–evolution process. The report applies the principles of this framework to three example governance scenarios based on a specification of a common industry standard. The examples include specification views to support the model understanding that a CPL specifier must provide and to create feature, function, and other model analysis attributes so that the supplier and potential users can assess whether or how well a CPL satisfies its specification. The analysis results become key factors in the decision-making process of component selection for integration into a weapon system.