Product Variant

Whether you are dealing with variants or not, it is good practice to adopt a consistent naming convention. Note that the tools do not enforce a naming convention, as this would unnecessarily restrict user choices.

A good start point is to base names of components and variants on a root that defines the overall product, adding terms to indicate:

• Component
• Geography
• Variation
• Year
• Other classification dimensions

So, for example, an “Automated Meter Reader” product might use the root “AMR” and have suffixes indicating variation, geography and product year:

• The US variant of a mobile reader intended for release in 2014 might be named: "AMR Mobile US 2014”
• The meter display component for the mobile variant might be named: “AMR Mobile Meter Display”

The main point is that the naming convention should be understandable to its users.