A product line is a set of related systems that address a market segment. Building a product line out of a common set of core assets, as opposed to building each member system separately, epitomizes reuse. Although software technology is key to achieving a product line capability, organizational and process considerations are just as crucial. This report describes the experience of one company, CelsiusTech Systems AB of Sweden, that builds large, complex, embedded, real-time shipboard command-and-control systems as a product line, developed in common from a base set of core software and organizational assets. The report describes the changes that CelsiusTech had to make to its software, organizational, and process structures to redirect the company toward a product line approach that yielded substantial economic and marketplace benefits to the company.

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