Product Line Scoping in Practice

Andrew Mark Dalgarno Software Acumen Limited, Cambridge, England

mark@software-acumen.com

Abstract

Product Line Scoping is a key, if not the key activity

in the development and evolution of Software Product Lines. In this panel session a select group of scoping specialists are invited to discuss scoping and why it is such an important activity. 1. Product Line Scoping in Practice

Successful Software Product Line organizations know that their product lines must be developed according to a well-defined Scope. This scope defines the range of applications that will be developed within the product line and how those applications are similar (or different).

If the scope is too small then the organizations will be unable to produce sufficient differentiated software products to enable them to generate a return-on-investment by developing the product line’s core, reusable assets across the product line. If the scope is too large then the organization will face considerable costs in order to develop this core, reusable asset base and to reuse assets from the platform in products.

Scoping is a key initial and on-going activity in product line development but organizations coming from a one-of-a-kind software development background will have little experience with scoping. In this panel session a group of product line specialists with different approaches to scoping will be asked to consider scoping and its relation to other product line activities. To motivate the discussion the panelists are asked to consider a small number of different product line scenarios and how they would approach scoping in each scenario.

12th International Software Product Line Conference

DOI 10.1109/SPLC.2008.54

363

12th International Software Product Line Conference

DOI 10.1109/SPLC.2008.54

363