ISO Initiatives on Software Product Line Engineering: Vision and Current Status Invited Talk for Variability@ER2011

Software product line engineering and management is still a relatively young discipline and its industrial diffusion is somewhat limited, partly due to the lack of international standards. It involves sub-disciplines that may not necessarily be mature enough yet for standardization. On the other hand, well-focused standardization efforts contribute to the diffusion of best product line practices and help raise the maturity of these practices. Careful roadmapping and execution of the standardization initiative is thus vital. This talk discusses the current roadmap for the international standardization initiative of software product line engineering and management methods and tools and the status of the work done so far in this area in the International Organization for Standardization (ISO). One of the purposes of the talk is to invite discussion about the most critical areas to be standardized and the time frames involved. The role of variability management in the standards will be especially emphasized. About the author. Dr. Timo K. Käkölä is an associate professor in the department of Computer Science and Information Systems in University of Jyväskylä. His research agenda focuses on the socio-technical design of flexible and effective business models and processes and enabling information systems architectures in software-intensive high-tech corporations. Dr. Käkölä is active in the editorial boards of three international journals and runs information systems and software business research related mini-tracks in international conferences. He served as the editor-in-chief of the book "Software Product Lines: Research Issues in Engineering and Management" published by Springer in August 2006. The book crystallizes and integrates some of the most central research results of an ambitious six-year European Union funded Eureka-ITEA research program on software product line engineering. In 2006, International Standardization Organization (ISO/JTC1/SC7 Software and Systems Engineering) appointed Dr. Käkölä as one of the editors responsible for leading the software product line engineering and management related international standardization activities.