Software Product Lines: a Succulent Minestrone with Many Flavours!

Software product lines aim at reducing the cost and increasing the quality of software products by producing multiple products synergistically. The underlying assumption is that the benefits from the reuse of domain specific software components will offset the extra cost for the increased organizational complexity. Product lines benefit from a collection of effects and technologies, such as branding, minimal marginal costs, network externalities, software reuse, and modularity in the development process. It is essential for a firm embracing a software product line approach to determine the extent to which each of these effects and technologies will be taken into account. However, this is not an easy task because it requires a deep understanding of the target market, its incumbents, and the firm’s own position, and technical and financial resources.