2 Problem Statement

During product family adoption, the organization may experience a variety of problems and challenges. This is caused by the mismatch between the approach used for the development of shared artefacts and the optimal approach. Below, we list the problems that, in our experience, are the most predominant.

• Mismatch between shared components and product needs
• High degree of design erosion of shared components
• Complex interface of product family components
• High degree of “organizational noise”
• Inefficient knowledge management
• Evolution causes ripple effects through the R&D organization
• Too optimistic assumptions about component value

3 Decision Dimensions for Shared Component Development

In this section, we present five decision dimensions that we, based on our industrial experiences, consider to represent the most important decisions that an organization should take. Each dimension presents a number of alternatives and discusses the advantages and disadvantages of each of these.

3.1 Feature selection

An important decision that must be taken early in the adoption of a software product family approach is what features and functionality to first move from the product specific to the product family realm. As discussed in [Geppert & Weiss 2003], especially the first components typically require a careful balance between the greatest perceived benefit and the highest chance of success. One can identify three approaches to selecting the first product family components.

3.1.1 Oldest, most generic, lowest components

The first approach is to start from the easiest components, maximizing the chance of success. These are typically the oldest, most generic components, often located in the lower layers of the product software architectures. The product teams often experience these components as necessary, but not relevant from a competitive perspective. Consequently, there is typically little resistance to move to a model where these components become shared among the products.