Tracy (1995, p. 19) emphasises in his book that in the twenty-first
century, tomorrow will be more different from today than in the past.
Therefore today's corporations get to stay innovative, reinvent
themselves continuously and have to design new business. In contrast to
that, software mastery becomes more than ever the key factor for
business success (Northrop, 2008, p. 12). In the twenty-first century,
software pervades every sector and has become the bottom line for many
organisations. Therefore, reusability plays a growing role for every
business in today's rapid changing world (Strahringer, 2003, p. 5).
Thus, new paradigms in software engineering are focusing on the
reutilisation and modularisation of software solutions. One innovative
and growing concept since 2003 is software line development which has
its origin in the automotive and fashion industry (Strahringer, 2003, p.
5). The key benefit of software line development is the covering of a
wide field of application with minimal extra costs by reuse of a common
software platform. In reference to Ebert & Smouts (2003, p. 29) the most
publications in the field of software lines deal with configuration and
change management. Whereas the integration of software line development
into enterprises' product portfolios has been till now widely neglected.
In contrast to that Jeffery & Leliveld (2004) points out that the
failure or success of software lines highly depends in particular on
their level of integration into companies' product portfolio system. For
this reason, the major goal of this research is the realisation of an
integrated portfolio management system for software line development.
This covers at first the determination of the role portfolio management
in organisational governance. Thereafter the general elements of a
portfolio management system will be identified. On the other side, the
specific demands of software line engineering according to the portfolio
elements will be analysed. The insights o
