Product lines: what are the issues?

The software market is progressively changing attitude. In the past, most software development activities were devoted to the production and maintenance of products that were used by a single user or by a limited number of users. Namely, software was built on demand, to address the specific needs of the customer. Conversely, there has been a significant trend towards the development of software products that are conceived, developed, distributed and maintained to address the needs of a much wider number of users. As a consequence, the most critical issue for many software development companies is to develop a new approach to product design, development, deployment and distribution. It is essential to conceive a comprehensive strategy where different software components are jointly produced and/or integrated to build solutions for a large number of users. We are, therefore, moving from an approach centered on a single software product, to development strategies based on families or lines of products for specific markets and classes of users. The authors consider the consequences of this trend on the enabling technology and methodology for software development