I. Software Product Line Engineering Are you interested in producing
software products or software-intensive systems at lower costs, in
shorter time, and with higher quality? If so, you are holding the right
book in your hands. Software product line engineering has proven to be
the methodology for Higher quality, lower developing a diversity of
software products and software-intensive systems cost, and shorter at
lower costs, in shorter time, and with higher quality. Numerous reports
development times document the significant achievements and experience
gained by introducing software product lines in the software industry.
Chapter 21 of this book summarises several cases. Concerning the
terminology, there is an almost synonymous use of the terms Software
product line "software product family" and "software product line".
Whereas in Europe vs. software product the term software product family
is used more often, in North America the family term software product
line is used more frequently. This is, among other things, reflected in
the names of the two former conference series (the so- ware product line
conference series, started in 2000 in the USA, and the product family
engineering (PFE) workshop series, started in 1996 in Europe) which were
merged in 2004 to form the leading software product line conference
(SPLC) series. In this book, we use the term software product line.
