Migrating Industrial Systems towards Software Product Lines: Experiences and Observations through Case Studies

Software product line engineering has emerged as one of the dominant paradigms for developing variety of software products based on a shared platform and shared software artifacts. An important and challenging type of software maintenance and evolution is how to cost-effectively manage the migration of legacy systems towards product lines. This paper presents a structured migration method and describes our experiences in migrating industrial legacy systems into product lines. In addition, we present a number of specific recommendations for the transition process which will be of value to organizations that are considering a product line approach to their business. The recommendations cover four perspectives: business, organization, product development processes and technology.