Example
There are some good examples of the use of product family engineering, which were quite successful. The abstract model of product family engineering allows different kinds of uses, most of them are related to the consumer electronics market. Below an example is given of an application of the product line engineering process, based on a real experience of Nokia.
Nokia produces different types of products. Among them is a mobile phones product family, currently containing 25 to 30 new products every year. These products are sold all over the world, which makes it necessary to support many different languages and user interfaces. A main problem here is that several different user interfaces must be supported, and because new products succeed each other very quickly, this should be done as efficiently as possible. Product family engineering makes it possible to create software for the different products and use variability to customize the software to each different mobile phone.
The Nokia case is comparable with a normal software product line. During the first phase, product management, it is possible to define the scope of the different mobile phone series. During the second phase, domain engineering, requirements are defined for the family, and for the individual types of phones, e.g., 6100/8300 series. In this phase, the software requirements are made, which can serve as a base for the whole product family. This speeds the overall development process for the software. The last phase, product engineering, is more focused on the individual types of phones. The requirements from the preceding phase are used to create individual software for the type of phone then being developed.
The use of a product line gave Nokia the opportunity to increase their production of new mobile phone models from 5-10 to around 30. Carnegie Mellon (SEI), 2006, Clements & Northrop (2003).
Read more about this topic: Product Family Engineering
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