booklet - ER 2011

Workshop Keynote Abstracts
Variability@ER Keynote: ISO Initiatives on Software Product Line
Engineering: Vision and Current Status
Timo K. Käkölä (Univ. of Jyväskyla, Jyväskyla, Finland)
Date: Tuesday 14:00-15:30
Room: Louise 3a
Chair: Arnon Sturm (Ben-Gurion University, Israel)
Timo K. Käkölä is a tenured associate professor in University of Jyväskylä. He has achieved
the formal competencies of a full professor in both information systems and software engineering
research in Finland. He has worked as the senior research scholar of the Academy of Finland in
Claremont Graduate University, California, USA. His research agenda focuses on the socio-technical
design of flexible and effective business models and processes and enabling information systems
architectures in software-intensive high-tech corporations. He is active in the editorial boards of
three international journals and runs information systems and software business research related mini-tracks
in leading international conference series such as Hawaii International Conference on Systems Sciences and
Americas Conference on Information Systems. He is an advisor of numerous doctoral students from all over
the world. He served as the editor-in-chief of the book “Software Product Lines: Research Issues in Engineering
and Management” published by Springer in August 2006. The book crystallizes and integrates some of the
most central research results of an ambitious six-year European Union funded Eureka-ITEA research program
on software product line engineering. In 2006, International Organization for Standardization (ISO/JTC1/SC7
Software and Systems Engineering) appointed Dr. Käkölä as one of the editors responsible for leading the
software product line engineering and management related international standardization activities.
Abstract Software product line engineering and management is still a relatively young discipline and its
industrial diffusion is somewhat limited, partly due to the lack of international standards. It involves subdisciplines
that may not necessarily be mature enough yet for standardization. On the other hand, wellfocused
standardization efforts contribute to the diffusion of best product line practices and help raise the
maturity of these practices. Careful roadmapping and execution of the standardization initiative is thus vital.
This talk discusses the current roadmap for the international standardization initiative of software product
line engineering and management methods and tools and the status of the work done so far in this area
in the International Organization for Standardization (ISO). One of the purposes of the talk is to invite
discussion about the most critical areas to be standardized and the time frames involved. The role of variability
management in the standards will be especially emphasized.
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