Product families

Product families are a branch of system development methodologies which focus on reuse. It is in particular useful in development of products which exhibits commonalities. A product familiy can typically be represented by several products, which share a common architecture and a set of features. To develop new products in a product familiy, we use knowledge of the commonalities of the products and the variations between products. This knowledge is used to configure the new product, which then is extended with new functionality. The main design principle is operationalisation of reuse through active use of tools and methods that supports the development process. Another important aspect is the coupling between market requirements and technical development.

Important concepts are:

• Commonality
• Variability
• Decision  process

Through projects, such as DAIM, CAFE and FAMILIES, we have experience with, and have developed, methods and tools for development of product families. In particular, we have focused on use of models and model-driven development philosophies.