Software Product Lines Collection
• Collection
Publisher
Software Engineering Institute
Topic or Tag
Abstract
A software product line is a set of software-intensive systems that share a common, managed set of features satisfying the specific needs of a particular market segment or mission and that are developed from a common set of core assets in a prescribed way.
Software product lines are emerging as a viable and important development paradigm allowing companies to realize order-of-magnitude improvements in time to market, cost, productivity, quality, and other business drivers. Software product line engineering can also enable rapid market entry and flexible response, and provide a capability for mass customization.
Benefits
Product lines can help organizations overcome the problems caused by resource shortages. Organizations of all types and sizes have discovered that a product line strategy, when skillfully implemented, can produce many benefits—and ultimately give the organizations a competitive edge. Example organizational benefits include:
- Improved productivity
- Increased quality
- Decreased cost
- Decreased labor needs
- Decreased time to market
- Ability to move into new markets in months, not years
This collection includes two decades of SEI work on software product lines.
Collection Items
A Framework for Software Product Line Practice, Version 5.0
• White Paper
By Linda M. Northrop, Paul C. Clements, Felix Bachmann, John K. Bergey, Gary Chastek, Sholom G. Cohen, Patrick Donohoe, Lawrence G. Jones, Robert W. Krut, Jr., Reed Little, John McGregor, Liam O'Brien
This document describes the activities and practices in which an organization must be competent before it can benefit from fielding a product line of software systems.
Read
The Arcade Game Maker Pedagogical Product Line
• White Paper
By Software Engineering Institute
The Arcade Game Maker product line is an example product line created to support learning about and experimenting with software product lines in the classroom.
Read
A Case Study in Successful Product Line Development
• Technical Report
By Lisa Brownsword, Paul C. Clements
This report describes the experience of a company that builds large, complex, embedded, real-time shipboard command-and-control systems as a product line.
Read
Adopting Software Product Lines: Getting Leverage from Your Process Improvement
• Presentation
By Lawrence G. Jones, Linda M. Northrop
This presentation was delivered by Lawrence G. Jones and Linda M. Northrop on June 13, 2005.
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An Approach to Software Product Line Acquisition Planning
• Presentation
By Lawrence G. Jones
Presented at the SEI Army Software Product Line Workshop, February 12, 2009.
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A Product Line Architecture for Army Aviation Diagnostics and Maintenance: Views and Evolution (SATURN 2007)
• Presentation
By Ken Capolongo, Sholom G. Cohen
This presentation was given at the 2007 SATURN workshop, held in Pittsburgh.
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A Study of Product Production in Software Product Lines
• Technical Note
By Gary Chastek, Patrick Donohoe, John McGregor
This 2004 report presents the results of a study that focused on how product line organizations create products.
Read
Architecture Reconstruction to Support a Product Line Effort: Case Study
• Technical Note
By Liam O'Brien
This report describes the architecture reconstruction process that was followed when the SEI performed architecture reconstructions on three small automotive motor systems.
Read
A Software Product Line Vision for Defense Acquisition
• Technical Note
By Grady Campbell
This report presents a vision for software product lines as an acquisition focus and suggests extensions to current Department of Defense policy and practices to increase the awareness of and …
Read
Basic Concepts of Product Line Practice for the DoD
• Technical Note
By John K. Bergey, Matt Fisher, Brian P. Gallagher, Lawrence G. Jones, Linda M. Northrop
This 2000 report provides background information to inform other reports in an SEI-published series of reports designed to provide concise and usable information about product line acquisition practices.
Read
Business Process Lines to Develop Service-Oriented Architectures through the Software Product Lines paradigm
• Presentation
By Nicola Boffoli (University of Bari), Danilo Caivano (University of Bari), Daniela Castelluccia (University of Bari), Fabrizio Maria Maggi (University of Bari), Giuseppe Visaggio (University of Bari)
This presentation on business process lines to service-oriented architecture through the software product lines paradigm was delivered by five members of the University of Bari in 2008.
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Case Study: A Measurement Program for Product Lines
• Technical Note
By Sholom G. Cohen, David Zubrow, Ed Dunn (Naval Undersea Warfare Center)
This report documents NUWC's approach for measurement by describing the Goal-Driven Software Measurement approach and providing early results of the measurement program.
Read
Case Study: Building and Communicating a Business Case for a DoD Product Line
• Technical Note
By Sholom G. Cohen
This case study describes a DoD weapon system development effort and compares the current way of developing software systems to the product line approach.
Read
Combining Product Line Engineering and Service Oriented Architecture in Health Care Infrastructure Systems: Experience Report
• Presentation
By Jörg Bartholdt (Siemens AG), Bernd Franke (Siemens AG), C. Schwanninger (Siemens AG), Michael Stal (Siemens AG)
This 2008 presentation was delivered by Jörg Bartholdt, Bernd Franke, C. Schwanninger, and Michael Stal of Siemens AG.
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Control Channel Toolkit: A Software Product Line Case Study
• Technical Report
By Paul C. Clements, Sholom G. Cohen, Patrick Donohoe, Linda M. Northrop
This 2001 report is a case study of the Control Channel Toolkit (CCT), a software asset base for a software product line of ground-based spacecraft command and control systems built …
Read
Developing a Product Line Acquisition Strategy for a DoD Organization: A Case Study
• Technical Note
By John K. Bergey, Wolfhart B. Goethert
This 2001 report describes the approach a DoD organization used to develop alternative acquisition strategies and analyzes the pros and cons of each.
Read
Exploring Acquisition Strategies for Adopting a Software Product Line
• White Paper
By John K. Bergey, Lawrence G. Jones
Some basics of software product line practice, the challenges that make product line acquisition unique, and three basic acquisition strategies are all part of this white paper.
Read
Formulation of a Production Strategy for a Software Product Line
• Technical Note
By Gary Chastek, Patrick Donohoe, John McGregor
This 2009 report describes a technique for formulating the production strategy of a production system.
Read
From Projects to Product Lines: A Product Line Economics Case Study
• Presentation
By Jukka Heikkilä, Rauli Käppi, Kai Vuolajärvi
This presentation provides an overview of the SCAMPI appraisal method.
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Guidelines for Developing a Product Line Concept of Operations
• Technical Report
By Sholom G. Cohen
This 1999 report provides guidelines for an organization that is developing a CONOPS document.
Read
Guidelines for Developing a Product Line Production Plan
• Technical Report
By Gary Chastek, John McGregor
This 2002 technical report provides guidance for creating, using, and evaluating a production plan, which is a description of how core assets are to be used to develop a product …
Read
Guidelines for Using OAR Concepts in a DoD Product Line Acquisition Environment
• Technical Note
By John K. Bergey, Dennis B. Smith
This 2000 report provides guidance for DoD organizations for mining legacy systems to obtain core assets that will fit into a previously defined software architecture for a product line.
Read
Introduction to Software Product Lines
• Presentation
By Patrick Donohoe
This TSP Symposium 2014 presentation introduces software product line development, essential activities and underlying practices, and costs and benefits of adoption.
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Introduction to Software Product Line Adoption
• Presentation
By Linda M. Northrop, Lawrence G. Jones
In this 2005 tutorial, Linda M. Northrop of the Software Engineering Institute (SEI) provides an introduction to software product line acquisition.
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Investment Analysis of Software Assets for Product Lines
• Technical Report
By James Withey
This 1996 report introduces an approach that will help managers make resource allocation decisions.
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Managing Variation in Services in a Software Product Line Context
• Technical Note
By Sholom G. Cohen, Robert W. Krut, Jr.
This report highlights the mutual benefits of combining systematic reuse approaches from product line development with flexible approaches for implementing business processes in a service oriented architecture.
Read
MAP and OAR Methods: Techniques for Developing Core Assets for Software Product Lines from Existing Assets
• Technical Note
By Liam O'Brien, Dennis B. Smith
This 2002 report describes the MAP and OAR methods, the activities that each involves, and examples of applying them.
Read
Measures for Software Product Lines
• Technical Note
By David Zubrow, Gary Chastek
This 2003 report characterizes the status of measurement associated with the operation of a software product line, suggests a small set of measures to support its management, and provides guidance …
Read
Mining Existing Assets for Software Product Lines
• Technical Note
By John K. Bergey, Dennis B. Smith
This 2000 report outlines four basic steps that are required to successfully mine assets.
Read
Overview of a Proactive Software Product Line Acquisition Approach
• Presentation
By John K. Bergey
Presented at the SEI Army Software Product Line Workshop, February 12, 2009
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Preparing for Automated Derivation of Products in a Software Product Line
• Technical Report
By John McGregor
This 2005 report provides an end-to-end view of the activities that are needed to support the automatic derivation of products within a software product line.
Read
Product Line Acquisition in the DoD: The Promise, The Challenges
• Technical Note
By Lawrence G. Jones
This 1999 paper presents the basics of product line practices and reports the results of two DoD product line workshops in which important issues and successful practices were shared.
Read
Product Line Acquisition in a DoD Organizational Guidance for Decision Makers
• Technical Note
By John K. Bergey, Sholom G. Cohen
This 2006 report chronicles the decisions a program manager might face in considering the adoption of a product line approach.
Read
SEI Product Line Bibliography
• White Paper
By Software Engineering Institute
This bibliography lists SEI and non-SEI resources that have informed the SEI Product Lines efforts. Examples cover diverse domains and show the kind of improvements you can achieve using a …
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SEI Software Product Line Diagnostics
• Brochure
By Software Engineering Institute
Three diagnostic tools for understanding an organization's readiness for and initial approach to software product lines.
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Software Product Line Adoption Roadmap
• Technical Report
By Linda M. Northrop
This 2004 report introduces a variant of the Factory Pattern called the Adoption Factory pattern that provides a generic roadmap to guide a manageable, phased product line adoption strategy.
Read
Software Product Line Essentials
• Presentation
By Linda M. Northrop
This presentation introduces the concept of strategic, planned reuse and a new way of conducting one's software business.
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Software Product Lines in Acquisition
• Presentation
By Grady Campbell
This 2003 presentation on Software Product Lines in Acquisition was delivered by Grady Campbell of the Software Engineering Institute (SEI) in January 2003.
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Software Product Lines: Past, Present, and Future
• Presentation
By Paul C. Clements
This presentation by Paul C. Clements was presented on May 2, 2005.
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Software Product Lines: Practices and Patterns
• Book
By Paul C. Clements, Linda M. Northrop
This book provides a framework of specific practices, with detailed case studies, to guide the implementation of product lines in your organization.
Read
Software Product Lines: Reuse That Makes Business Sense
• Presentation
By Linda M. Northrop
This presentation on Software Product Lines: Reuse That Makes Business Sense was delivered by Linda M. Northrop of the Software Engineering Institute (SEI) in April 2006.
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Testing a Software Product Line
• Technical Report
By John McGregor
This report expands on the testing practice area described by Clements and Northrop. Test-related activities that can be used to form the test process for a product line organization are …
Read
The DoD Acquisition Environment and Software Product Lines
• Technical Note
By John K. Bergey, Matt Fisher, Lawrence G. Jones
This technical note examines three key DoD acquisition policies and regulations, along with their implications for launching a product line.
Read
The U.S. Army's Common Avionics Architecture System (CAAS) Product Line: A Case Study
• Technical Report
By Paul C. Clements, John K. Bergey
This report offers a case study of organizations that have adopted a software product line approach for developing a family of software-intensive systems.
Read
Variability in Software Product Lines
• Technical Report
By Felix Bachmann, Paul C. Clements
This 2005 report describes the concepts needed when creating core assets with included variability. These concepts provide guidelines to core asset creators on how to model the variability explicitly, so …
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