Structured Variation Management in Software Product Lines

Variation management is one of the key challenges associated with software product lines. Much is written about this topic. There are methods and tools available, home-grown and commercial, which attempt to make handling product line variations practical. The focus of these methods is on supporting software development; that is, handling variations in the code core assets. However, there are non-code core assets and they also have variations. For example, there are marketing roadmaps, requirement specifications, test cases, process definitions, and all kinds of documentation including user guides, to name just a few. These core assets also have to implement the required variations of the product line and need to do so in a consistent way or there will be incompatible implementations and resultant inefficiencies. The approach to variation we are suggesting takes an organization-wide perspective, covering the entire gamut of core assets not just the code We describe the definition, implementation, and management, including tools support, of a few essential variations throughout the organization to make handling product line variations more efficient and effective.