Discussion Report “Business” Session

Abstract

The “Business” session of the workshop covers the basic question to be answered when a product line approach is adapted by an organisation:

• Is it worth the effort? Will the product line approach really deliver the expected benefits?

• What will the assets for reuse be so that these benefits can be achieved?

Two presentations showed two complementary methods to answer these questions. The first shows a fast, simple method to determine the potential of a product-line approach, which helps to achieve a fast decision, whether to apply this approach for a certain set of products. The second shows a detailed method, which determines the scope of a product line, and the benefit, which can be achieved by adopting the product-line approach. A tool is presented which helps in determining the scope of the product line.