Expanding the Scope of Software Product Families: Problems and Alternative Approaches

Abstract

Software product families have found broad adoption in Nokia, the telecom industry, and the embedded systems industry as a whole. Product family thinking has been prevalent in this context for mechanics and hardware, and adopting the same for software has been viewed as a logical approach. During recent years, however, the trends of convergence, end-to-end solutions, shortened innovation and R&D cycles and differentiation through software engineering capabilities have led to a development where organizations are stretching the scope of their product families far beyond the initial design. Failing to adjust the product family approach, including the architectural and process dimensions, when the business strategy is changing is leading to several challenging problems that can be viewed as symptoms of this approach. The presentation discusses the key symptoms, the underlying causes for these symptoms as well as solutions for realigning the product family approach with the business strategy. The presentation uses examples from Nokia to illustrate the solutions and approaches that will be discussed.