Investment Analysis of Software Assets for Product Lines
Abstract
Group, product line, and program managers are faced with allocating resources to projects. Should all resources be dedicated to meet near-term deliverables? Or should some be siphoned off to build software assets that may improve quality, flexibility, and reduce cost and time-to-market of future products in the product line? These managers also have to determine which assets to buy or build. The choices are many, ranging from reusable code components to design models to application generators, and each has a different risk and cash flow profile. This report introduces an approach that will help managers make these allocation decisions. The report outlines a planning and communication tool for analyzing investments in software assets for product lines. The goal of the approach is to provide managers a means to determine whether to build software assets for a product line. It will help managers use marketing forecasts to recognize the software assets proposed by engineering that have the highest economic leverage across the variety of products.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Nov 01, 1996
- Accession Number
- AD1134091
Entities
People
- James Withey
Organizations
- Carnegie Mellon University