Software Product Lines : Practices and Patterns

Software product lines: the first step-by-step methodology.

• Development approaches proven to maximize flexibility and quality -- and minimize costs and time-to-market.
• Covers more than 20 technical, organizational, and management issues associated with implementing product lines.
• Identifies key risk factors and demonstrates how to manage these risks more effectively.

Organizations worldwide are discovering the value of a product line approach to software development: an approach based on building sets of related systems from common assets. Product lines make it possible to construct more flexible systems, do so more rapidly, and deliver higher quality and lower cost. In this book, two of the field's leaders introduce the first step-by-step methodology for implementing product lines successfully. Paul Clements and Linda Northrop show software professionals exactly where to begin with product lines. Then, they review every key technical, organizational, and management issue associated with adopting a product line practice, identifying more than two dozen practice areas requiring attention and skill. They identify key risk factors, and present proven techniques for mitigating these risks. The book also contains two detailed case studies, demonstrating how two very different organizations overcame obstacles to a product line methodology in very different ways. For all software architects, engineers, project managers, and other software professionals charged with delivering on large development projects.

Paul Clements is senior member of technical staff at the SEI. He worked previously as a senior software engineer at the Naval Research Laboratory. He is co-author of Software Architecture in Practice. Clements holds a Ph.D. from the University of Texas at Austin. Linda Northrop has 30 years of experience in software development, including work at Eastman Kodak and IBM. Currently director of the Product Line Systems Program at SEI, she will chair the first international conference on Product Lines.