Sun Myung Hwang   Jin Sam Kim

Vol. 13,  No. 4, pp. 583-592, Aug.  2006
10.3745/KIPSTD.2006.13.4.583

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Software development based on product lines has been proved a promising technology that can drastically reduce cycle time and guarantee quality by strategically reusing quality core assets that belong to an organization. However, how to measure within a product line is different from how to measure within a single software project in that we have to consider the aspects of both core assets and projects that utilize the assets. Moreover, the performance aspects of overall project lines need to be considered within a product line context. Therefore, a systematic approach to measure the performance of product lines is essential to have consistent, repeatable and effective measures within a product line. This paper presents a context-based measurements elicitation approach for product lines that reflects the performance characteristics of product lines and the diversity of their application. The approach includes both detailed procedures and work products resulting from implementation of the procedures, along with their templates. To show the utility of the approach, this paper presents the elicited measurements, especially for technical management practices among product line practices. This paper also illustrated a real application case that adopt this approach. The systematic approach enables management attributes, i.e., measurements to be identified when we construct product lines or develop software product based on the product lines. The measurements will be effective in that they are derived in consideration of the application context andinterests of stakeholders.