Normally, product is taken as a tangible object, such as a pen, television set, bread. A software product line is a set of software products that share a common set of features. Software engineering software product geeksforgeeks. View software product line architecture research papers on academia. The notion of features is commonly used to describe the functional and nonfunctional characteristics of a system. Software product lines spls, or software product line development, refers to software engineering methods, tools and techniques for creating a collection of similar software systems from a shared set of software assets using a common means of production the carnegie mellon software engineering institute defines a software product line as a set of software intensive systems that share a. Software engineers can share different assets among all the software available in the respective product line. The final dimension of product line development regards the life cycles of the product line assets. Advances in applications of object constraint language for software engineering. It is designed to suit some specific goals such as data processing, information sharing, communication, and so on.
The software should not make wasteful use of system. Software product line architecture research papers. The carnegie mellon software engineering institute defines a software product line as. A software product line is a family of products designed to take advantage of their common aspects and predicted variabilitys. While developing any kind of software product, the first question in any developers mind is, what are the qualities that a good software should have. Various operational characteristics of quality software product are as follows. Introduction to the emerging practice of software product line development part 3. The architecture of an spl is to describe both shared components of products family and individual character istic of single product. In the first section, product line development is compared to traditional software. Ciscos next generation firewall product line software. Software product lines challenge traditional analysis techniques, such as. This article describes how this is done in practice, using the example of a product line of meteorological data systems.
What are the characteristics of software product answers. For technology companies it can make sense to differentiate between. Search careerbuilder for software product line architecture for enterprise applications jobs and browse our platform. A number of challenges regarding testing of software product lines have. Techniques for static analysis are often dismissed as more expensive, but in a software product line, the cost of static analysis can be amortized over multiple products. The developed software product make sure should meet all the customer specification. A product line is a group of related products under a single brand sold by the same company. Product line architecture pla is the main tangible element shared by all products of a software product line spl. Customers who already know the brand will be more willing to buy from their new line. Software quality is often decomposed into individual quality characteristics. This paper presents early software product line activities which have been performed during the initialization phase of the fraunhofer pulse product line software and system engineering approach. Qualityoriented software product line architecture design. It may also happen that the software will boost the market, killing the competitors by the burst wave and get a toehold in the tops. A software product line is a family of products designed to take advantage of their common aspects and predicted variabilities weiss 1999.
The software product line practice was designed to manage software products, and their commonalities were designed to maximize the benefits to the organization. A software product line is a collection of multiple software. Software quality is a judgment about the value of software from a particular perspective. A feature is a prominent or distinctive uservisible behavior, aspect, quality, or characteristic of a software system kang et al. Software product line engineering develop family of software applications apply mass customization use software platform. Analysis strategies for software product lines cmu school of. Software product line engineering is a development paradigm based on common software platforms, which are customized in order to form specific products. A classification of product sampling for software product. Using these characteristics, software engineers can assess software products for strengths and weaknesses. Software product lines have emerged as a new software development paradigm of great importance. The software product line practice was designed to manage software products, and their commonalities were designed to. Properly decomposing a product line into features, and correctly using features in. Software product lines are quite common in our daily lives, but before a product family can be successfully established, an extensive process.
Long a standard practice in traditional manufacturing, the concept of product lines is relatively new to the software industry. Towards a software product line architecture to build mlearning. In most companies, the product line manager supervises a product line. The activities analyze an existing set of related control units and identify common and varying characteristics of these solutions delivered to customers in the past. Software characteristics are classified into six major components. This person is in charge of determining what stays and what goes. Introduction to the emerging practice of software product. Using this example we will show how a product line is designed, and how product variants can be derived automatically. A software product line spl implies a formal procedure for designing the modules based on predicting how. From a user persepctive there are several characteristics that are. Software product lines spls, or software product line development, refers to software engineering methods, tools and techniques for creating a collection of similar software systems from a shared set of software assets using a common means of production. Software product lines a software product line is a set of software intensive systems that share a common, managed set of features satisfying the specific needs of a particular market segment or mission and that are developed from a common set of core assets in a prescribed way. Introduction systems and software product line engineering is a way to engineer a portfolio of related products in an efficient.
A framework for software product line practice, version 5. We can share the common, managed set of software features that can satisfy the. A software platform is a set of generic components that form a common structure, from which a set of derivative products can be developed. The reminder of this paper is organized as follows. Well before going into technical characteristics, i would like to state the obvious expectations one has from any software. Cisco is introducing a new software release delivery model and specific support lifecycle guidelines with the ftd 6. 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 products and their characteristics presented by. Looking ahead, we sketch some applications of the product line variability modeling principles and techniques in nonsple settings. Pdf qualityoriented software product line architecture. A product line architecture is a software architecture that supports a software product line.
An effective quality strategy for a software product line requires both static and dynamic analysis techniques. A software product line is a set of software intensive systems sharing a common, managed set of features that satisfy the specific needs of a particular market segment or mission and that are developed from a. Software is defined as collection of computer programs, procedures, rules and data. Product flexibility is the anthem of the software marketplace, and product lines fulfill the promise of tailormade systems built specifically for the needs of. Marketer can satisfy needs and wants of target consumers by products.
The characteristic that distinguishes software product lines from previous efforts is predictive versus opportunistic software reuse. Such uses are increasingly common, as mobile applications and other types of software with extensive configuration options have proliferated. Any organization that has many software systems will notice that many of. The benefits of software product line development practice. A software product line is a set of software reliant systems that share a common, managed set of features satisfying a particular market or mission area, and are built from a common set of core assets in a prescribed way.
If you like geeksforgeeks and would like to contribute, you can also write an article using contribute. A software product line consists of a product line architecture, a set of reusable components and a set of products derived from the shared assets. Product line engineering an overview sciencedirect topics. Software product lines a software product line spl is a set of software intensive systems that share a common, managed set of features satisfying the specific needs of a particular market segment or mission and that are developed from a common set of core assets in a prescribed way. Operational characteristics of a good quality software product are based on the functionality and related to exterior quality of software product. Software product line engineering with feature models. Systems and software product line engineering is a. Software product lines and architecture 1208 words. Software can be applied in countless fields such as business, education, social sector, and other fields. In this series of articles i would like to cover 10 characteristics which, to my opinion, follow each successful software product whether it is. Introduction to software product lines springerlink. The cisco ngfw product line software release train provides two feature releases per year, approximately six months apart.
Software product line testing a systematic mapping study. A systematic mapping study of software product lines testing. Starting a software product line by reengineering a set of. This entry defines and explores the concepts central to systems and software product line engineering and five key characteristics that are central to its modern practice. A company that makes telecommunications software may introduce a new app for tracking a cell phone. A successful spl is able to improve the development productivity and the quality of the software, significantly reduce cost and time to market. Software product line an overview sciencedirect topics.
In software product line engineering, features often become the prime entities of software reuse and are used to distinguish the individual products of a product line. A product line is a set of products that together address a particular market segment or fulfill a particular mission. Quality software attributes andor characteristics of good. Always remember in software engineering, quality of software is everything, therefore try to deliver a product which has all these characteristics and qualities. First and foremost, a software product must meet all the. Software product line engineering is a paradigm to develop software applications software intensive systems and software products using platforms and mass customisation pohl et.
A software product line is a set of software intensive systems sharing a common, managed set of features, that satisfy the specific needs of a particular market segment or mission and that are developed from a common set of core assets in a prescribed way. Product family engineering pfe, also known as product line engineering, is a synonym for domain engineering created by the software engineering institute, a term coined by james neighbors in his 1980 dissertation at university of california, irvine. Software product line engineering has gained considerable momentum in recent years, both in industry and in academia. Software product line engineering sple is a form of the new model in the line of software engineering where techniques of industrial production are, and gradually changes carry out for software. The first step in planning a product line is to separate the features that stay the same from the features that are different across products. This section outlines some of the characteristics that influence this surprising diversity in transition profiles. A software product line is a set of software intensive systems that share a common, managed set of features satisfying the specific. Introduction to the seis software product line framework. In addition, these quality characteristics can also be used to compare and contrast the relative merits of software development paradigms.
Product is a bundle of benefitsphysical and psychological that marketer wants to offer, or a bundle of expectations that consumers want to fulfill. Software product line engineering sple supports the development of a. It is classified according to the range of potential of applications. A wellengineered software product should possess the following essential characteristics. Systems and software product line engineering biglever. Existing literature on software product lines 1,5,6,7 tends to focus on the technology and the processes that surround product line based software development. The three main goals of a software product line are to reduce cost, improve delivery time, and improve quality.