Second Generation Product Line Engineering Takes Hold in the DoD
Abstract
Product Line Engineering (PLE) is a well-established engineering discipline that provides an efficient way to build and maintain portfolios of systems that share common features and capabilities. Systems -- including DoD systems -- built with PLE have, for decades now, demonstrated improvements in development time, cost, quality, and engineering productivity that consistently attain integer-multiple improvements over comparable non-PLE engineering efforts. Until recently there was no unified repeatable approach available; each PLE project went its own way. But now, two high-visibility DoD examples (Navy's AEGIS and Army's Live Training Transformation) are taking advantage of a strong and well-defined automation-centered approach that some are calling Second Generation PLE, and reaping substantial benefits as a result. The AEGIS command and control systems of Naval surface combatants differ widely, but have so much in common with each other that it is more beneficial to consider them as variants in the same family. The Army's Live Training Transformation comprises a multitude of training systems covering a spectrum from single-soldier weapons trainers to large-scale synthetic force-on-force war gaming systems. Once again, there is benefit being gained by viewing them as a family.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Jan 01, 2014
- Accession Number
- ADA591929
Entities
People
- Andrew J. Winkler
- Charles Krueger
- James T. Shepherd
- Jeremy Lanman
- Jorge Rivera
- Paul Clements
- Rick Scharadin
- Susan P. Gregg
Organizations
- BigLever Software, Inc.