Detlef Becker

Scope extension of an existing product line

At the beginning, creating a product line needs a well defined and narrow scope to meet short time to market demands. When established, there is a tendency to broaden the scope and to cover more domains and products. We have undergone a scope extension of our medical diagnostic platform that was implemented while the platform and (existing) products were evolving. In this paper, we list best practices for the migration process and how to come to a sustainable solution without cannibalizing the existing platform and products. In particular, we describe our way of identification beneficial sub-domains using C/V analysis and give an example scenario with alignments in order to increase commonality. We explain the maturity considerations for deciding on reuse of existing implementations and a carve-out strategy to split existing assets into common modules and product-line specific extensions. Furthermore, we describe our best practices for making the scope extension sustainable in a long term, using various types of governance means. We briefly complement these experiences with further insights gained during execution of this endeavor.

Re-engineering of a Hierarchical Product Line

Transition from a classic platform reuse approach towards a product line engineering paradigm for existing products is demanding. Existing software design, substantial amount of code, an established development process, organizational set-up of teams and the mindset of involved people must be considered. These factors make the transition challenging compared to a green-field approach, where reusable assets are already developed in a product line spirit. We describe our experience during transitioning to a product line approach in the context of a healthcare imaging platform from the viewpoint of responsible domain engineering architects. Our primary focus is on re-engineering activities to introduce product line engineering practices to an existing legacy system. General product-line challenges not related to re-engineering are omitted in this paper. We recognize additional benefits when applying a hierarchical product line approach in our domain. We conclude with the factors that impact a successful transition to a product-line approach.