Managing variability with traceability in product and service families

Service family architectures are based on a set of basic building blocks that can be configured appropriately to build different services based on the same set of assets. These building blocks should be designed to provide variability so as to facilitate configuration and assembly in order to produce a family of products/services. Such an architectural design for a family of services is recognized as a highly knowledge intensive process. Documenting design decisions associated with these various configurations leading to variability and the capability to trace the life of a variation in both forward and backward directions are key to a flexible development of a service family. In this paper; we discuss the key role played by a traceability-based knowledge management system in documenting such design decisions and in tracing variability. Using a case study, we illustrate the importance of using such a knowledge management system in the design and development of service families.