A Technical History of the SEI

understand the basis for product line success that was starting to occur in the commercial space,
and then to build on that innovation and, ultimately, transition knowledge and results to the DoD.
In 1996, the SEI convened the first of what was to become a series of workshops to learn more
about the state of product line practices. Organizations attending the first workshop included CelsiusTech,
Robert Bosch GmBH, Schlumberger, Philips Laboratories, Caterpillar, and the U.S.
Army [Bass 1997, 1998, 1999]. The SEI became an active participant in a similar set of workshops
occurring in Europe that were funded by the European Union as part of research projects
focused on product families. In 1998, the SEI held the
first of a series of DoD Product Line Workshops to
share successful product line practices and identify
DoD-specific challenges to strategic reuse [Bergey
1998]. 62
The SEI also engaged directly with DoD organizations
that were attempting product line efforts. The National
Reconnaissance Office (NRO), the Joint National Test
Facility, the U.S. Army Special Operations Aviation
Technical Application Program Office, the F-22 Pilot
Training Program, and the Army’s Force XXI Battle
Command Brigade and Below (FBCB2) Program were among the many to be successful. The
NRO’s Control Channel Toolkit (CCT) was a software asset base for ground-based spacecraft command-and-control
systems that was completed on schedule and within budget, with no outstanding
risks or actions. The first system in this product line experienced a 50 percent reduction in overall
cost and schedule and nearly tenfold reductions in development personnel and defects [Clements
2001, Section 10].
Key contributions by the SEI to the discipline of product line practice, created to support the
adoption of software product lines, include the following:
The View from Others
COM SEC will benefit greatly
from the growth in technology
awareness and process improvement
resulting from the support
provided by the SEI.
– Advanced Multiplex Test
System, CECMOM Army
Framework for Software Product Line Practice. Stemming from the SEI’s immersion in
the product line community, its applied research, collaborations with DoD and commercial
organizations, and participation in workshops, and conferences, the SEI developed the webbased
Framework for Software Product Line Practice as a reference model that describes the
technical, management, and business practices essential for software product lines. The
framework was intended to be a complete and thorough reference model for every aspect of
product line practice, as opposed to a development model or roadmap. The last revision of the
framework took place in 2006. There was also an Acquisition Companion to the framework
that described the practices from the view of a government acquisition organization.
Software Product Lines: Practices and Patterns [Clements 2001]. This was the first book on
software product lines, and includes the framework, product line case studies, and a set of patterns
that aimed to help organizations achieve results with the practices.
62 Reports on subsequent workshops can be found in the digital library on the SEI website (http://resources.sei.cmu.edu/library/).
All were written by Bergey as primary author except one, by S. Cohen.
CMU/SEI-2016-SR-027 | SOFTWARE ENGINEERING INSTITUTE | CARNEGIE MELLON UNIVERSITY 266
Distribution Statement A: Approved for Public Release; Distribution is Unlimited.