Introduction to software product lines adoption
Linda Northrop, Lawrence Gaylord Jones · 2012
The tremendous benefits of taking a software product line approach are well documented. Organizations have achieved significant reductions in cost and time to market and, at the same time, increased the quality of families of their software systems. However, there are still considerable barriers to organizational adoption of product line practices. If an organization is sold on the concept, how is it to proceed? Most organizations are today doing incremental development. So, phased adoption simply makes sense. It is attractive as a risk reduction and fiscally viable proposition. This tutorial describes a phased, pattern-based approach to software product line adoption. The tutorial begins with a discussion of software product line adoption issues and then presents the Adoption Factory pattern. The Adoption Factory pattern provides a roadmap for phased, product line adoption. The tutorial covers the Adoption Factory in detail, including focus areas, phases, subpatterns, related practice areas, outputs, and roles. Examples of product line adoption plans following the pattern are used to illustrate its utility. The tutorial also describes common pitfalls and strategies for creating synergy within an organization between product line adoption and ongoing agile, CMMI or architecture-centric activities.