Preparing for product derivation: activities and issues

Software product lines (SPL) advocates the development of applications by reusing shared software assets across a set of related products. Current approaches to the derivation of products from a product line focuses on handling the commonalities and variabilities of the shared software assets. These approaches have failed to consider the early phases of product derivation. In this paper we report on how we compared both industrial and academic approaches to the establishment of a product derivation project. Based on this research and our experiences, we have identified key activities and important issues that should be considered when establishing a product derivation project.