Product Line Practice
The Product Line Practice Initiative guides organizations away from traditional one-at-a-time system development and toward the systematic large-scale reuse paradigm of product lines. Product lines save time and money: systems that use the same components and offer the same features require less time for planning and rework, have lower production costs, and require fewer staff members. Because the shared components of a product line are reused from system to system—rather than built from scratch every time—the systems in software product lines are also highly reliable.
The software product line approach allows companies to realize order-of-magnitude improvements in time to market, cost, productivity, quality, and other business drivers. SEI technical staff members are working to make software product line practice a dependable low-risk, high-payoff practice that combines the necessary business and technical approaches to achieve success.
The SEI has successfully piloted its product line practices and methods with select early adopter organizations. For example, tractor manufacturer John Deere, following the software product lines practices and methods developed by the SEI, went from producing one software system in 10 years to producing two software systems in one year.
The U.S. Army's Technical Applications Program Office (TAPO) has adopted a product line approach for the avionics software used for the Army's special operations helicopters. That software is based on Rockwell Collins’ Common Avionics Architecture System (CAAS). The CAAS product line contributed to reduced development, maintenance, and integration costs for the Army's fleet of special operations helicopters, and the scope of the CAAS product line now is evolving beyond special operations and into other Army aviation platforms such as cargo and utility helicopters.
To schedule an interview with an SEI expert, contact SEI Public Relations at public-relations@sei.cmu.edu.
For more information about the SEI’s PLS Program, visit http://www.sei.cmu.edu/programs/pls/pl_program.html.