Product Line Requirements Management - Galactic Solutions Group

1

Twelfth Annual International Symposium of theInternational Council On Systems Engineering (INCOSE)

Product LineRequirements Management

Michael Sutherland

Galactic Solutions Group LLC

[email protected]

2Twelfth Annual International Symposium of the INCOSEProduct Line Requirements Management

© 2002 Galactic Solutions Group LLCMichael Sutherland - [email protected]

Product Line - Definition

• A Product Line is a group of products that:

–Share a common Architecture

• Domain Engineering

–Reuse common technology and core assets

• Planned reuse (more mature organizations)

–Support related Applications

• Application Engineering

• Sometimes called a “Platform”



Product Family - Rockets

Zak, Anatoly Rockets R Us IEEE Spectrum February 2002. (see references)



Product Family - Deskjet Printers

The Power of Product Platforms - Building Value And Cost Leadership (see references)



Product Family - Cans

Product Data Management and Software Configuration Management - Similarities and Differences (see references)



Product Line - Structure

• Product Line is Structured and Displayed as Tree or Hierarchy

– Called “Configuration Definition Tree”

• Configuration:

– A specific set of requirements for an Application.

– One configuration will exist for each Application, and will berepresented as a “node” on the Configuration Definition Tree

• Configurations are also used to specify requirements that arecommon across Applications.

– Aids in reuse of requirements

– Eliminates re-specification of requirements



Example - Engine Product Line

• A Vehicle is offered to the customer with more than one Engine option, suchas a six cylinder Gamma V6 engine optimised for fuel economy and cost, oran eight cylinder Delta V8 engine optimised for power and performance.

Vehicle Alpha

Vehicle Beta

Powertrain Product

Line Alpha

Powertrain Product

Line Beta

Engine Product Line Gamma V6

Engine Product

Line Delta V8



Types of Requirements Tracked:

Product Commitment (PC): Requirement Values that are to be achieved for an ApplicationConfiguration.

Customer Requirement (CR): Documented Customer Requirements, which an ApplicationConfiguration is designed to meet or exceed.

Design (D): Common core Designs upon which specific Application Configurations are built.

Base (B): Requirements that are common to all Designs and Application Configurations.

Application Configurations

Powertrain Product

Line Alpha

Powertrain Product

Line Beta

Engine Product Line Delta V8

Delta V8 - Alpha

Delta V8 - Beta

Two Engine Product Applications

• Unique Tracking Number (1, 101, 102, etc)

• Classification (PC)

• Children of a Baseline Design (B),containing common requirements



Requirements Specification



Requirement Value Inheritance

• A Child Configuration will inherit Requirement Values from theParent Configuration if values are not specifically set for the Child.

– Allows for the reuse of requirements for each Application withoutre-specification.

– Using the relationships defined in the Configuration DefinitionTree, re-used Requirement Values need only be entered once.



Natural Language Extraction

3.2.1.2.1.1 Engine Rated Peak Power for the V8 Alpha Engine

shall be greater than or equal to 320 horsepower.

3

52

4 5

2 3 541

1

Requirements are displayed and edited in a compact “expert view” form.



Complex Configuration Tree Definition

By defining a more detailedConfiguration Definition Tree,many more Applications of aProduct Line may be managed.

New applications can bespawned off of any existingApplication Configuration byadding new Child Configurationsat the appropriate place in theConfiguration Definition Tree.



Usage

• Every Product Line Application Configuration existsbecause it will be integrated into a larger system, ordelivered to an external customer.

• These are also Product Lines, and as such will have theirown Product Technical Specifications with ConfigurationTree Definitions.

• To comprehend Usage, traceability is establishedbetween Product Line Application Configurations and thehigher level Configurations of the systems that they areintegrated into.



Engine Usage for Powertrains

• Powertrain Application Configuration Definition Tree,displaying Engine Usage in red.

Building Usage knowledge into the process isessential for developing other kinds ofRequirements Traceability through theProduct Lines.

Relationships between Requirementsbelonging to specific ApplicationConfigurations can then be formed torepresent Functional Decomposition andAllocation, Interfaces, etc.

Relationships can also be formed betweenRequirements from specific ApplicationConfigurations and Analysis Models, TestPlans and Procedures, etc.



Implementation - Database

• DOORS, a Commercial Off-the-Shelf (COTS) tool developedand distributed by Telelogic, was chosen for theimplementation of this technique.

• DOORS has the ability to quickly display, filter, and editinformation in a spreadsheet form (rows and columns) similarto the Microsoft Excel environment that Product Engineerswere previously using to track requirements.



Product Line - Benefits

• Development and production effort for common sub-systemsis leveraged, centralized and minimized.

• The impact of change is clearly defined and can be assessedbefore changes are made to re-used Requirements.

• Usage is comprehended in the Design process, so thatrelationships between specific Application Configurations andDesign elements that impact them can be formed andmanaged.

• New products can be added to the Product Line, or proposedproducts can be quickly analyzed for feasibility.



References

• Sutherland, Michael, Product Line Requirements Mangement, Proceedings of the Twelfth Annual InternationalSymposium of the International Council On Systems Engineering (INCOSE)http://www.galactic-solutions.com

• Dahlqvist, Asklund, Crnkovic, Hedin, Larsson, Ranby, and Svensson, Product Data Management and SoftwareConfiguration Management - Similarities and Differences The Association of Swedish Engineering Industries2001 http://www.mrtc.mdh.se/publications/0373.pdf

• Meyer, Marc H. and Lehnerd, Alvin P., The Power of Product Platforms - Building Value And CostLeadership http://web.cba.neu.edu/~mmeyer/research/12/bookchap2/chap2.html

• Zak, Anatoly Rockets R Us IEEE Spectrum February 2002.http://caffeine.ieee.org/WEBONLY/publicfeature/feb02/rock.html



Contact

Contact: [email protected]

or download from

http://galactic-solutions.com

Documents

Product Line Requirements Management - Galactic Solutions Group