Steps

1. Create a top-level configuration

2. Add (create) a new Product to the top-level configuration

At this level, you want your product node to represent the overall System that you are building (Note: may be a subsystem that you are contracted to develop as part of the larger system). The first product you create will be further referred to as the “base” product in your product line. You can later branch new product variants from this “base” product. Similarly, you can branch new product variants from any of the other product variants.

Define an organization-wide naming convention and use it for products line, products, components. For example, for products give them names that refer to the actual System and its parts (Subsystems, Components). For variations of product in your Product Line, give descriptive names that clearly refer to the role of the variant in the overall product line (e.g. Handheld MeterReader, Mobile MeterReader, Grid MeterReader, Mobile MeterReader UK, etc.) We recommend that you come up with your own organization-wide naming convention that utilizes words that prepend or append the name of your Product Line in a meaningful way

3. [Optional] Define additional top-level products by branching variants of your “base” product. It is recommended to fully define the structure of your “base” product first.

4. Add nodes to the product definition representing subsystems or components. You can do this iteratively, going down to the lowest possible component level. Each component at this lowest level should map to a separate engineering team working on the corresponding engineering artifacts (e.g. requirements, designs, code, test cases, etc.).

5. Save the new product definition