Risk management in software product lines: An industrial case study

Software Product Lines (SPL) adoption can affect several aspects of an organization and it involves significant investment and risk. This way, SPL risk management is a crucial activity of SPL adoption. This study aims to identify SPL risks during the scoping and requirement disciplines to provide information to better understand risk management in SPL. In order to achieve the previous stated goal, a case study research was applied in an industrial project in the medical information management domain. Using the captured risks, a classification scheme was built and risk mitigation strategies were identified. We spent five months, totaling 79 hours, performing risk management (RM) in the scoping discipline and twelve months, totaling 148 hours, performing RM on the requirements discipline. We identified 32 risks during the scoping discipline and 20 risks during the requirements discipline, 14 risks occurred in both disciplines. Some identified risks are not particular to SPL development, however, they have their impact increased due to the SPL characteristic. All the study results and lessons learned are useful for all project managers and researchers who are considering the introduction of SPL risk management in industry or academia.

I. Introduction

Software product lines is based on a set of systems sharing a common, managed suite of features which satisfies a particular market segment and are developed in a prescribed way [1]. The SPL approach is emerging as a viable and important development paradigm allowing companies to achieve large-scale reuse, reduced time-to-market, improved quality and reduced costs. Benefits have been reported as a result of adopting SPL through its systematic exploration of reuse opportunities [2].