HomeAway: A Case Study in the 3-Tiered Software Product Line Methodology

The genesis of HomeAway, Inc. was startup by accretion – eight companies in the web-based vacation home rental market were acquired and merged. The technical solution during the merger and acquisition phase was to assimilate the software functionality of each of the eight companies into a one-size-fits-all application that could be configured with runtime settings to support the look-andfeel of the original eight. When rapid growth and an aggressive business plan pushed the one-size-fits-all approach beyond its limits, HomeAway decisively applied the 3-Tiered Software Product Line (SPL) Methodology and the Gears SPL engineering tool from BigLever Software to transition to a first-class new generation SPL approach. This case study explores how HomeAway leveraged the innovations of the 3-Tiered Methodology and Gears to accelerate software development, reduce defect density, lower development overhead, and extend the scalability of its portfolio to better achieve its aggressive business goals.