Integrating Business, Manufacturing, and Software Product Line Strategies

John D. McGregor

Clemson University

Melissa L. Russ

Luminary Software

A strategy is the long-term view of how to add value that will attract a specific audience and result in the achievement of the long-term goals of the organization. An enterprise has many strategies intended to achieve many different goals. Executives at all levels of the organizational chart define these long-term views for their unit. The catch is that all of these strategies must be compatible. Michael Porter calls this “strategic fit” [Porter 80]. Strategies that fit together form a value chain for the enterprise that ensures maximum benefit.

Corporate executives determine the broad goals for the enterprise and then identify business strategies that describe how to achieve those goals. Executives in units, such as marketing and finance, put their strategies in place in response to the overall corporate strategy. These strategies often interact, and sometimes interfere, with each other. In a previous paper, we presented a case study in which a specific product manufacturing strategy required assumptions that were in direct conflict with the software product line strategy. We also presented a process for achieving strategic fit of the software product line strategy with other manufacturing strategies. In this brief position paper we consider the interpretation of Porter’s Five-forces model for strategy definition, Figure 1, in the context of the software product line strategy.

In the last few years, many software companies have been engaged in initiatives such as process improvement, which strive for operational effectiveness. That is, they seek to improve the performance and effectiveness of development techniques. Short-term gains can be achieved in this way but existing techniques can only be improved so much. Strategic differentiation requires that an organization clearly and carefully determine where they can add value that will result in a competitive advantage.

Software product lines is a strategy framework suitable for a software business unit. The software product line strategy affects many, even most, of the processes and techniques used to produce a software-intensive product. We use the term framework here because the product line strategy can be tailored to fit a variety of goals. The software product line organization considers the enterprise strategy, determines where they can add value, and develops a software production strategy that complements it.

The software product line organization needs an explicit statement of the strategy because it forms the rationale for the organization. Figure 1 contains an annotated version of Porter’s five-forces model that provides a basis for the development of this strategy. This development builds on the enterprise strategy as reflected in the questions in the annotations. It is assumed that members of each of the groups, e.g. Suppliers, have been identified during the development of earlier pieces in the value chain. The software product line organization considers each group and the forces from a software perspective. What development methods are the Suppliers using? Can the product line organization benefit from what the Suppliers have to offer? The output is a strategy that guides the product line organization: Maximize the amount of software purchased, that meets our standards, while minimizing the number of suppliers with which we work.

Figure 1: The five-forces model annotated for the software product line organization

In order to ensure strategic fit, the product line organization considers how existing corporate strategies affect the five groups identified in the model. The organization then ensures strategic fit by developing their strategy to be supportive of the corporate strategy. For example, assume the corporate marketing strategy with respect to Buyers is to offer the products for free to buyers of service contracts. The software product line organization will complement that with a strategy that emphasizes maximizing reuse and minimizing cost. Or, assume that the corporate planning strategy with respect to Substitutes is to counter them by making, as standard, many of the optional features offered by the substitute products. The product line organization could respond with a strategy that emphasizes architectural flexibility.

A basic outline for documenting the strategy is given in Figure 2. The strategy defines how each of the product line practices defined in [Clements 02] is affected by the strategy.

Figure 2: Strategy Description Format

Our work continues into how the information in the above model can be translated into an effective strategy for the software product line organization. The organization may have multiple strategies internally as well. For example, there is usually a product production strategy [Chastek 02]. These must be compatible with the high-level product line strategy.

References

[Chastek 02]	Gary Chastek and John D. McGregor. Guidelines for Developing a Product Line Production Plan, Software Engineering Institute, CMU/SEI-2002-TR-006.
[Clements 02]	Paul Clements & Linda Northrop Software Product Lines: Practices and Patterns, Addison-Wesley, 2002.
[McGregor 02]	John D. McGregor and Melissa L. Russ. Integrating A Software Product Line Strategy with a Product Production Strategy: A Case Study, Proceedings of the PLEES’02, 2002.
[Porter 80]	Michael E. Porter. Competitive Strategy, Free Press, 1980.