SPLC 2009 - SPLC.net l Software Product Line Conferences

SPLC 2009 | The 13th International Software Product Line Conference
Production Planning in a Software Product Line Organization
Gary Chastek & John D. McGregor, Software Engineering Institute, USA
Most software product line organizations recognize the need for two roles: core asset
developers and product builders. These roles may both be assumed by the same individual,
or each may be assumed by persons who are in different administrative units, in different
geographic locations, or of vastly different skill levels. For example, a corporation may
have one lab assigned to produce core assets and other labs around the world to use those
assets to produce products. The greater the separation among these people, the greater the
need for communication and coordination regarding product production.
Production planning is used in many industries to coordinate the efforts of external
suppliers who supply parts and to structure the assembly line where products are produced.
The need for coordination in a software product line organization is even greater than in
hard-goods manufacturing, because product production is less constrained by physical
properties or industrial standards. Our research has shown that organizations that fail to
plan production are more likely to fail than those that do plan. The goal of this tutorial is to
provide participants with techniques for conducting production planning.
We will cover the complete product line life cycle from adoption until a first generation of
products is developed. We use a business strategy development tool, Porter’s Five Forces
model, to guide strategy development. We will use the Software Process Engineering Metamodel
and an instantiation of it—the Eclipse Process Framework—for method development
and documentation. For the production plan, we will use a document template that has been
used with numerous clients.
Presenter Biographies:
Gary J. Chastek is a senior member of the technical staff at the Software Engineering
Institute, working in the Research, Technology, and System Solutions Program. He has
presented tutorials and led workshops at SPLC and OOPSLA. Chastek’s current research
interests include production planning, variability management, and the use of aspectoriented
development in a software product line.
John D. McGregor is an associate professor of computer science at Clemson University, a
founding partner of Luminary Software, and a Visiting Scientist at the Software
Engineering Institute. He is co-author of two books on software engineering, including A
Practical Guide to Testing Object-Oriented Software Engineering. McGregor teaches
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