Software product line is a software development method that is very suitable for professional software organizations. It can effectively improve software productivity and quality, shorten development time, and reduce development costs; it is an emerging, multidisciplinary research field.
1. SEI divides the product line into 4 working groups
SEI divides the organizational structure of software product lines. Different understandings of product lines lead to different organizational divisions. Different division methods show different division of labor and assistance relationships in the development process. SEI divides the product line organization into 4 working groups:
1. Marketing personnel are the communication bridge between product lines, product capabilities, and customer needs;
2. The core resource group is responsible for the development of architecture and other core resources;
3. The application group is responsible for system development delivered to customers;
4. Managers are responsible for the coordination of the development process, business planning, etc.
2. How to establish a software product line
The establishment of a software product line requires a conscious and visible effort by software organizations wishing to use a software product line approach in order to be successful. Depending on whether the organization uses an evolutionary or revolutionary approach, or whether it is based on existing products or developing entirely new products, the establishment of a software product line can be divided into four methods.
1. The main advantage of evolving existing products into product lines is that by decomposing the investment return cycle and maintaining the evolution of the existing system, the implementation risk of the product line method is minimized, but the overall core resources of the product line are completed. Both the cycle time and the total investment are larger than using the revolutionary approach.
2. Replace the existing product set with a software product line. The goal of this method is to develop a new platform that is not limited by the problems of the existing product set. The total cycle and total investment are less than the evolutionary method, but due to the important needs There is an increased risk of obsolescence of the initial investment due to changes.
3. The advantage of the evolution of a new software product line is that it requires less upfront investment, less risk, and the first product is available early.
4. The advantage of the development of a new software product line is that once the core resources of the product line are completed, the development speed of new products will be very fast and the total cost will be reduced; the disadvantage is that it is difficult to be comprehensive and correct in the needs of new fields, making Core resources are not able to support new product development as expected.
3. Some factors related to the successful implementation of product line
It can be mainly considered from the following four aspects.
(1) It has long-term accumulated experience in product development in this field.
(2) A good core resource library for building products.
(3) Good product line architecture.
(4) Good management (software resources, personnel organization, process) support.