Isn software product line practice the same as single-system development with reuse?
No. It differs in two fundamental ways. First, building a software product line is all about planning a plurality of products that will exist in the field and be maintained simultaneously, not just one that evolves over time. And second, the reuse that’s involved is carefully planned, strategic, and applies across the entire set. In fact, one of the primary distinguishing characteristics of product line practice is preplanned reuse rather than ad hoc or one-time-only reuse. Software product line practice encourages choices and options that are optimized from the beginning for more than a single system.Vendors and other developers issue subsequent releases of single products all the time, and have been doing so for years. Each release is built in the same way you would say from the same core asset base. Technically speaking, what’s the difference between a software product line and multiple releases of the same product?There are some similarities, but the differences are acute enough to
No. It differs in two fundamental ways. First, building a software product line is all about planning a plurality of products that will exist in the field and be maintained simultaneously, not just one that evolves over time. And second, the reuse that’s involved is carefully planned, strategic, and applies across the entire set. In fact, one of the primary distinguishing characteristics of product line practice is preplanned reuse rather than ad hoc or one-time-only reuse. Software product line practice encourages choices and options that are optimized from the beginning for more than a single system. Vendors and other developers issue subsequent releases of single products all the time, and have been doing so for years. Each release is built in the same way you would say from the same core asset base. Technically speaking, what’s the difference between a software product line and multiple releases of the same product? There are some similarities, but the differences are acute enough
No. It differs in three fundamental ways. First, building a software product line is about planning a plurality of products that will exist in the field and be maintained simultaneously, not just one that evolves over time. Second, the reuse that’s involved is carefully planned, strategic, and applicable across the entire set. In fact, one of the primary distinguishing characteristics of product line practice is planned reuse rather than ad hoc reuse. Software product line practice encourages choices and options that are optimized from the beginning for more than a single system. And third, single-system development with reuse usually begins by taking the latest version of whatever other systems happen to exist, copying the code, and starting to make product-specific changes to it. The result is that each version of each product launches on its own maintenance and change trajectory, which soon overwhelms the organization trying to keep all of the versions under control and staffing the
Related Questions
- They both approach development in an iterative and incremental way. Why didn you incorporate more software product line functionality into Code Roller?
- Isn software product line practice the same as single-system development with reuse?
- Isn product line practice just another name for component-based development?
