Long a standard practice in traditional manufacturing, the concept of product lines is relatively new to the software industry. A software product line is a family of systems that share a common set of core technical assets, with preplanned extensions and variations to address the needs of specific customers or market segments. Software organizations of all types and sizes are discovering that when skillfully implemented, a product line strategy can yield enormous gains in productivity, quality, and time-to-market.

Software Product Lines is the culmination of an intensive investigation, undertaken by the Software Engineering Institute (SEI) at Carnegie Mellon, into how leading-edge software development organizations have "retooled" for product lines. With explanations of fundamental concepts further illuminated by real-world experience, this book spells out the technical issues involved in adopting a product line strategy, as well as the organizational and management issues that are so critical for success. In providing a comprehensive set of practices and patterns, this book defines and explores the key activities for software product line development and explains specific practice areas in engineering, technical management, and organizational management.

Highlights include:

• The benefits of a software product line approach, including actual improvement data from industrial success stories
• Methods to develop a reusable base of core assets and to develop products that utilize that core
• Common problems paired with concrete solutions in the form of reusable software product pine patterns
• Twenty-nine practice areas for successful implementation, including architecture definition,component development, configuration management, market analysis, and training
• The product line technical probe for identifying technical and organizational weaknesses that could impede success

Three detailed case studies from the industry lead you step by step through the process of developing and managing software product lines, illustrating potential pitfalls, creative solutions, and the ultimate rewards. Discussion questions, sidebars, and real-world anecdotes from the trenches reveal the collective wisdom of those on the front line of software product line ventures.

0201703327B09102001

Average Customer Review: ( 12 customer reviews )
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The first chapter is a great introduction to product lines. The next couple of chapters are okay, but rather fluffy. The rest of the book is really academic and formal and I didn't find it particularly useful. These chapters were also very difficult to read (tedious and dry). Too much pontification; too little real information.

5 of 5 found the following review helpful:

The Product Line Engineering BibleDec 20, 2005
By T. Anderson
This is the leading authority on Product Line Engineering (PLE). No other book comes close. This book breaks down the three PLE practice areas of Software Engineering, Technical Management, and Organizational Management and describes each in great detail. The book provides guidelines on each area and how to achieve institutionalization of your PLE process.

The book has a great patterns catalog, Software Product Line Practice Patterns. The catalog includes The Essentials Coverage pattern, Each Asset pattern, Build pattern, Product Parts pattern, Assembly Line pattern, Monitor pattern, Product Builder pattern, Cold Start pattern, In Motion pattern, Process pattern, and Factory pattern.

If you are involved with Product Line Engineering or Software Factories at all, this is a must have. You cannot do without it. If you aren't involved with Product Line Engineering or Software Factories, this is still a great read because it covers a process that should be implemented on every project. Implementing PLE makes a project reusable, predictable, maintainable, and manageable. Overall it adds measurable metrics to all the assets of a project.

10 of 12 found the following review helpful:

The Value of Process PatternsMar 25, 2002
By Stefan Ferber
Imagine! you are a well founded software engineer and try to establish
the product line approach in your company.
Imagine! managers ask you to proof that the product line approach will
have a "good" return of investment.
Imagine! you open page XXX in your book YYY and start reading section
ZZZ.
Imagine! you develop a concept for a business case in 2 hours though you
haven't attended any business class ever.
Surprise! the you is me
Surprise! the XXX is 365
Surprise! YYY is Linda's and Paul's Product Line Book (Software Product
Lines: Practices and Patterns)
Surprise! ZZZ is the "What to build PATTERN".

The Product Line Patterns are the heart and the most condensed
experience of the SEI Software Product Line Framework. Though most
people do not recognize the patterns give you the balance between too
specific and too general process descriptions. The three cycles Core
Asset Development, Product Development, and Management of the framework
are good for simple overview purpose and therefore appropriate for the
management level. The 29 practice areas guide you through activities and
methods; therefore they are basically at the operational especially the
engineering level.

But it is the patterns that help you to sail though some of the practice
areas to achieve a certain goal. The patterns set the process and the
workflow. They are different for different problems and environments;
that's what a workflow should be.
Hunting for the world wide valid process description that is specific
enough to be meaningful is like trying to invent the perpetum mobile.

Suggesting only one product line process would therefore mean that it is
very general or that it is valid only for certain organizations,
markets, goals, products, and people. The patterns are specific
processes that help to achieve only certain goals in a predefined
environment. Though I think the framework patterns can be improved and
extended they are much more meaningful to the product line community
than any other product line process description I have seen up to now.

7 of 8 found the following review helpful:

If you're already doing this, a great book; otherwise, notDec 21, 2003
By Lars Bergstrom "LarsBerg"
So, if you've already made the decision to go with software product lines, this is an excellent book. It's got a huge amount of reference material, is well-edited, and clearly has the benefit of a lot of practical experience.

Unfortunately, if you're debating with or just want to learn about software product lines, this book isn't for you. I didn't see a single example of when software product lines are *not* appropriate for a set of work that needs to be done and, in general, this just assumes that you already have the sort of work that fits this model and dives right into the details. Also, the "29 practices" are spread over just under 300 pages, and make it hard to understand the big picture. It would've been nice to see even one-page descriptions of the patterns in context to be able to pull it all together more easily.

3 of 3 found the following review helpful:

Great book if you already know Software Product Lines, but..May 21, 2004
By Jo K. Nash
If you have the concept of software product lines down, this is a great book, but if not you can easily get lost or confused, so it becomes difficult reading. If you want to explore software product lines, buy this book, then while you are waiting for the book to arrive read the website http://www.softwareproductlines.com to get up to speed on the concepts.

Software product lines will become a must whether you develop enterprise software or embedded software. This is so much more than we ever discussed about software resue.....

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