Second Generation Product Line Engineering Takes Hold in the DoD
Paul Clements, Susan P. Gregg, Charles W. Krueger, Jeremy T. Lanman, Jorge Rivera, Rick Scharadin, James T Shepherd, Andrew J Winkler · 2014
Abstract: Product line engineering (PLE) is a well-established engineering discipline that provides an efficient way to build and maintain portfolios of systems that share common features and capabilities. Systems – including DoD systems – built with PLE have, for decades now, demonstrated improvements in development time, cost, quality, and engineering productivity that consistently attain integer-multiple improvements over comparable non-PLE engineering efforts. Until recently there was no unified repeatable approach available; each PLE project went its own way. But now, two high-visibility DoD examples (Navy’s AEGIS and Army’s Live Training Transformation) are taking advantage of a strong and well-defined automation-centered approach that some are calling Second Generation PLE, and reaping substantial benefits as a result. 1.