Introduction

The main purpose of this document is to deal with the capabilities of methods and tools of software and systems product line (SSPL) organizational management. This document defines how the tools and methods can support the software and systems product line-specific organizational management processes. Since product lines deal with multiple products that have similarities, product lines have an unprecedented level of organizational management complexities. This arises from several sources:

— there are inherent differences in organizational considerations because there are parallel development processes (domain and application engineering) in a product line, and the two processes are tightly related with each other around assets;
— the close relationships among domain engineering, application engineering and assets require the highly matured managerial capabilities for addressing the relationships; and
— there is a lack of tools and methods to support the product line-specific organizational management.

Organizational management addresses the orchestration of the product line organization. Introduction and institutionalization of the product line strategy in an organization requires ongoing preparation, planning, execution and improvement efforts. Organizational management provides planning, monitoring and control, and management for product line adoption, transition, operations, evolution and organizational value achievement such as reusability, reducing cost and improving quality.

There are needs for defining product line-specific organizational management processes that integrate the involved product line disciplines with those for a single product. Furthermore, support of tools and methods are required so that a product line organization can perform organizational management under the systematic control of complexities. This document addresses the product line-specific processes in organizational management by dividing those into organizational-level product line planning, organizational product line enabling, and organizational product line management areas with the guidance of a set of tools and methods capabilities for supporting tasks for product line organizational management.

This document is intended to benefit people who acquire, supply, develop, operate and maintain tools and methods for product line organizational management. This document can be used in one or more of the following modes:

— by an organization intended to implement product lines — to understand, adopt and enact the processes, tools and methods for product line organizational management. This also helps the organization to evaluate and select relevant tools and methods based on business and user-related criteria; and
— by a tool vendor who facilitates or leverages product line engineering practices — to provide a set of tool capabilities that should be embodied in a tool for supporting product line organizational management.

The ISO/IEC 26550 family of standards addresses both engineering and management processes and capabilities of methods and tools in terms of the key characteristics of product line development. This document provides processes and capabilities of methods and tools for product line realization. Other ISO/IEC 26550 family of standards are as follows: ISO/IEC 26550, ISO/IEC 26551, ISO/IEC 26555, ISO/IEC 26557, ISO/IEC 26558 and ISO/IEC 26559 are published. ISO/IEC 26552, ISO/IEC 26553, ISO/IEC 26554, ISO/IEC 26560, ISO/IEC 26561, ISO/IEC 26562 and ISO/IEC 26563 are planned International Standards. The following list provides an overview of the family:

— processes and capabilities of methods and tools for domain requirements engineering and application requirements engineering are provided in ISO/IEC 26551;
— processes and capabilities of methods and tools for domain design and application design are provided in ISO/IEC 26552;
— processes and capabilities of methods and tools for domain realization and application realization are provided in ISO/IEC 26553;
— processes and capabilities of methods and tools for domain testing and application testing are provided in ISO/IEC 26554;
— processes and capabilities of methods and tools for technical management are provided in ISO/IEC 26555;
— processes and capabilities of methods and tools for variability mechanisms are provided in ISO/IEC 26557;
— processes and capabilities of methods and tools for variability modelling are provided in ISO/IEC 26558;
— processes and capabilities of methods and tools for variability traceability are provided in ISO/IEC 26559;
— processes and capabilities of methods and tools for product management are provided in ISO/IEC 26560;
— processes and capabilities of methods and tools for technical probe are provided in ISO/IEC 26561;
— processes and capabilities of methods and tools for transition management are provided in ISO/IEC 26562;
— processes and capabilities of methods and tools for configuration management of asset are provided in ISO/IEC 26563; and
— others (ISO/IEC 26564 to ISO/IEC 26599) are to be developed.

BS ISO/IEC 26556:2018

Information technology. Software and systems engineering. Tools and methods for product line organizational management

Current, Under Review

Published:

30 Nov 2018