Variability management strategies to support efficient delivery and maintenance of embedded systems

Abstract

Software intensive organisations that are able to efficiently handle product variability can reach competitive advantage by shorter development lead times, improved customer satisfaction, and reduced costs of product management. Improved reusability and flexibility, combined with variability strategies can provide companies mechanisms to offer new product variants fast to customers. Especially for long living embedded systems, it is essential to effectively maintain the delivered systems and keep maintenance costs at reasonable level. This paper describes a case study in which three industrial product development projects were studied in order to understand which variability strategies were implemented in their specific variability context. Results indicate that variability challenges and selected variability strategies depend both on the product platform maturity, as well as, the project development model. However, variability strategy needs continuous evaluation during the product lifecycle.