Product line software engineering of embedded systems

In order to be able to determine whether the product line approach is suitable, a company needs to analyse its business drivers, commonality of existing products, domain knowledge owned by the engineering staff, and quality of the representations of existing software artefacts. In this paper we present evaluation criteria for the development of a product line and give an overview of the current state of practices in the embedded software area. Evaluation criteria are divided into three classes. Business drivers of a product line are defined by analysing product assortment and business manners. Domains and personnel are considered in the analysis of the preconditions and targets of a product line. In the development of core assets, elements that affect assets engineering are considered as well as the mechanisms needed in their maintenance. A product line architecture that brings about a balance between sub-domains and their most important properties is an investment that must be looked after. However, the subdomains need flexibility to use, change and manage their own technologies, and evolve separately, but in a controlled way.