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Software product lines
Coming Soon: A New Version of the SEI's Framework for Software Product Line Practice
The SEI’s Framework for Software Product Line PracticeSM is a conceptual framework that describes the essential activities and 29 practice areas necessary for successful software product lines. A new version of the Framework, Version 5.0, is being prepared for release later this summer.
The Framework, originally conceived in 1998, is a Web-based, living document that helps the software community in software product line endeavors. It is evolving based on the experience and information provided by the community. Each version of the Framework represents an incremental attempt to capture the latest information about successful software product-line practices. This information has been gleaned from studies of organizations that have built product lines, from direct collaborations by the SEI on software product lines with organizations, and from leading practitioners in software product lines.
Version 4.0 of the Framework, also published in the book Software Product Lines: Practices and Patterns [Clements 02], has been a relatively stable baseline since 2002 and the basis for the last two releases, Versions 4.1 and 4.2. Version 4.2 is currently available at http://www.sei.cmu.edu/productlines/framework.html.
In the last five years, the community using the Framework has grown, and the number of organizations achieving business benefits from a product line approach has grown. At the same time, a number of other emerging technologies have influenced approaches to software product lines. It was time to overhaul the Framework and issue a major release—Version 5.0.
There are significant changes in Version 5.0 that reflect current prevalent trends in software engineering—the open-source movement, globally distributed development, service-oriented architectures, model-driven development, and agile development—as well as a wave of new product line experiences that have surfaced new practices and references. The resultant changes to the Framework include
- a discussion of contextual factors that influence core-asset development. Product contraints, production constraints, production strategy, and preexisting assets are no longer rigid inputs but rather contextual factors.
- more in-depth coverage of the production-plan concept
- new frequently-asked questions (FAQs)
- significant modifications to the following practice areas:
- “COTS Utilization” was changed to “Using Externally Available Software” and expanded to include open-source software and services as prominent software choices.
- “Mining Existing Assets” was expanded to include externally available software as a mining source.
- “Software System Integration” was expanded to discuss continuous, iterative integration, and closer ties have been made to production planning.
- “Testing” now includes more detailed descriptions of guidelines and test artifacts.
- “Data Collection, Measurement, and Tracking” was changed to “Measurement and Tracking” and rewritten to emphasize the goals of measurement rather than the mechanics.
- “Process Definition” was changed to “Process Discipline” and rewritten to emphasize the need for process discipline throughout, which exceeds the ability to merely define processes. This practice area was also expanded to include a treatment of agile approaches and the production process and production method for the product line.
- “Technical Planning” was expanded to provide more coverage of production planning.
- “Tool Support” was expanded to discuss tools for automating product derivation.
- “Building a Business Case” now includes an expanded discussion of using the business case to weigh alternative strategies and coverage of Boehm’s Constructive Product Line Investment Model (COPLIMO) economic model for product lines [Boehm 04].
- “Customer Interface Management” now includes a discussion of customer identification.
- “Developing an Acquisition Strategy” now covers the acquisition of services and other externally available software, as well as acquisition in a global development environment.
- “Launching and Institutionalizing” now includes a discussion of the SEI Adoption Factory pattern and more coverage of institutionalization.
- “Operations” now considers a product line concept of operations (CONOPS) to be essential.
- “Structuring the Organization” now has a clarified relationship with the “Operations” practice area.
- “Training” includes added sources of product line training.
A hyperlinked Version 5.0 will be available on the SEI Web site in July. Watch for an announcement on the SEI Web site. A second edition of the book Software Product Lines: Practices and Patterns, which will also include an updated version of the SEI product line practice patterns and new product line case studies, has an anticipated publication date of January 2008.
Framework for Software Product Line Practice is a service mark of Carnegie Mellon University.
References
[Boehm 04]
Boehm, Barry; Brown, A. Winsor; Madachy, Ray; & Ye Yang. “A Software Product Line Life Cycle Cost Estimation Model,” 156-164. Proceedings of the 2004 International Symposium on Empirical Software Engineering. Redondo Beach, CA, August 19-20, 2004. Los Alamitos, CA: IEEE Computer Society, 2004.
[Clements 02]
Clements, P. & Northrop, L. Software Product Lines: Practices and Patterns. Boston, MA: Addison-Wesley, 2002.
About the Author
Linda Northrop has more than 35 years of experience in software development as a practitioner, researcher, manager, consultant, and educator. She currently is director of the Product Line Systems Program at the SEI where she leads the work in software architecture, software product lines, and predictable component engineering. Under her leadership, the SEI has developed software architecture and product line methods that are used worldwide, a series of five highly acclaimed books, and software architecture and software product line curricula. She is coauthor of Software Product Lines: Practices and Patterns. She recently led a year-long study that included leaders in the software community to define technical and social challenges to the creation of ultra-large-scale systems that will evolve in the next generation. The group published the study report, Ultra-Large-Scale Systems: The Software Challenge of the Future (ISBN 0-9786956-0-7).
Before joining the SEI, she was associated with both the United States Air Force Academy and the State University of New York as professor of computer science, and with both Eastman Kodak and IBM as a software engineer. As a private consultant, Northrop also worked for an assortment of companies covering a wide range of software systems. She is a recipient of the Carnegie Science Award of Excellence for Information Technology and the New York State Chancellor’s Award for Excellence in Teaching.
The views expressed in this article are the author's only and do not represent directly or imply any official position or view of the Software Engineering Institute or Carnegie Mellon University. This article is intended to stimulate further discussion about this topic.