Software Product Lines: Practices and Patterns [Hardcover]

Paul Clements (Author), Linda Northrop (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0201703327 | ISBN-13: 978-0201703320 | Publication Date: August 30, 2001 | Edition: 3rd

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

Editorial Reviews

From the Back Cover

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 line 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.

About the Author

Paul Clements is a senior member of the technical staff at the SEI, where he works on software architecture and product line engineering. He is the author of five books and more than three dozen papers on these and other topics.

Linda Northrop is director of the Product Line Systems Program at the SEI and chaired the first annual International Conference on Software Product Lines. A frequent keynote speaker and highly acclaimed educator, she has more than thirty years of experience in software development, including work at Eastman Kodak and IBM.

0201703327AB01162003

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 608 pages
• Publisher: Addison-Wesley Professional; 3rd edition (August 30, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0201703327
• ISBN-13: 978-0201703320
• Product Dimensions: 9.5 x 6.5 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #427,728 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Great topic, but fairly academic, August 22, 2003

By 

Karl Man (Washington, DC) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Software Product Lines: Practices and Patterns (Hardcover)

Book compiled from numerous interviews as opposed to real practitioners. I've worked with product lines and was quite excited when this book was published. However, I was rather disappointed. It doesn't really provide the insight into how do I sit down and create a product line.

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 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Product Line Engineering Bible, December 20, 2005

By 

T. Anderson (PA USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Software Product Lines: Practices and Patterns (Hardcover)

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 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Value of Process Patterns, March 25, 2002

By 

Stefan Ferber - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Software Product Lines: Practices and Patterns (Hardcover)

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.