The full power and value of the Rational PLE solution is experienced as the organization aligns key aspects of product line engineering.

Select Scope

Select the scope of the alignment; in general begin with a smaller scope such as a few teams within a project/product/program or product line. Generally it can be easier to align initially with teams on the same project/product/program or product line.

To get started it may be best to start with a single team, such as “Team Y2”. That team could focus on ensuring SSE processes are mature, which includes baselining activities, change management, and other such activities. The ability to align multiple teams within or across products is dependent on mature SSE capabilities.   

Identify and Define Key Terms

As teams both within and across product lines work there are times when the terminology varies, taking on different semantics, making clear communication more difficult.

Within the selected scope of alignment identify key terms and definition. The list below has two sections, the first section contains IBM Rational PLE terms which enable effective use of the PLE solution and tools, the second section are other PLE terms which may be useful in cross-team communication in your reuse scope, these may extend the definitions from the first list.

See the attached guideline for a starting list of PLE terms.

Some of these terms may not be relevant to your environment. Or there may be other terms added. What is important is to define the terms for describing products or components or variants and to also describe the kinds of artifacts which comprise those artifacts.

• Platform
• Product
• System
• Sub-system
• Component – you may determine there are many kinds of components for your environment
• Feature
• Function

Kinds of artifacts that are important to your engineering process:

• Requirement: business, system, safety, software
• Design specification
• Goals: quality, safety
• Hardware: ECU, LRU
• Test: strategy, case, result
• Plans: design, test, validation, release
• Report: defect report, test report, release report  

Identify and Define Key Artifacts

As teams both within a product line and across product lines work there are times when the artifacts vary, taking on different semantics, which makes clear communication more difficult.

Within the selected scope of alignment and using the terminology list (created earlier) identify key artifacts and definitions. Determine what links are expected between these artifacts. The picture below gives a sample of the kind of picture that is useful in understanding the key artifacts that can be shared within the selected scope.

To get started you may choose a subset of these artifacts. For example, you may start with the “Design Spec” and “Requirement” artifacts, ensuring they are properly versioned, baselined, and linked. When this is in place then those requirements and specs could be used by other teams. After that a larger scope of artifacts can be pursued.

Understanding the necessary links between artifacts gives insight to the tool integrations needed to support the product engineering for those artifacts. Choosing the scope of these artifacts also influences the PLE adoption process.  

Align PLE with the Engineering Process

The product line engineering process, its milestones and activities need to be aligned within the selected scope. The image below is a high-level sample of product engineering phases. Your engineering process should replace that image, and the key phases, milestones, and activities should be mapped into the PLE/ALM workflows.

For example, the PLE activities are mapped to the sample engineering process below. This is important to understand which aspects of your current process will need to adjust to adopt PLE activities.