Software product lines represent perhaps the most exciting paradigm shift in software development since the advent of high-level programming languages. Nowhere else in software engineering have we seen such breathtaking improvements in cost, quality, time to market, and developer productivity, often registering in the order-of-magnitude range. Here, the authors combine academic research results with real-world industrial experiences, thus presenting a broad view on product line engineering so that both managers and technical specialists will benefit from exposure to this work. They capture the wealth of knowledge that eight companies have gathered during the introduction of the software product line engineering approach in their daily practice.

This textbook addresses students, professionals, lecturers and researchers interested in software product line engineering. With more than 100 examples and about 150 illustrations, the authors describe in detail the essential foundations, principles and techniques of software product line engineering.

The authors are professionals and researchers who significantly influenced the software product line engineering paradigm and successfully applied software product line engineering principles in industry. They have structured this textbook around a comprehensive product line framework.

Software product line engineering has proven to be the paradigm for developing a diversity of software products and software-intensive systems in shorter time, at lower cost, and with higher quality. It facilitates platform-based development and mass customisation. The authors elaborate on the two key principles behind software product line engineering: (1) the separation of software development in two distinct processes, domain and application engineering; (2) the explicit definition and management of the variability of the product line across all development artefacts.

As a student, you will find a detailed description of the key processes, their activities and underlying techniques for defining and managing software product line artefacts. As a researcher or lecturer, you will find a comprehensive discussion of the state of the art organised around the comprehensive framework. As a professional, you will find guidelines for introducing this paradigm in your company and an overview of industrial experiences with software product line engineering.

Software product line engineering has proven to be the methodology for developing a diversity of software products and software intensive systems at lower costs, in shorter time, and with higher quality. In this book, Pohl and his co-authors present a framework for software product line engineering which they have developed based on their academic as well as industrial experience gained in projects over the last eight years. They do not only detail the technical aspect of the development, but also an integrated view of the business, organisation and process aspects are given. In addition, they explicitly point out the key differences of software product line engineering compared to traditional single software system development, as the need for two distinct development processes for domain and application engineering respectively, or the need to define and manage variability.

Software product lines represent perhaps the most exciting paradigm shift in software development since the advent of high-level programming languages. Nowhere else in software engineering have we seen such breathtaking improvements in cost, quality, time to market, and developer productivity, often registering in the order-of-magnitude range. Here, the authors combine academic research results with real-world industrial experiences, thus presenting a broad view on product line engineering so that both managers and technical specialists will benefit from exposure to this work. They capture the wealth of knowledge that eight companies have gathered during the introduction of the software product line engineering approach in their daily practice.