Chapter 15. CelsiusTech: A Case Study in Product Line Development

with Lisa Brownsword

Note: Lisa Brownsword is a member of the technical staff at the Software Engineering Institute, Carnegie Mellon University.

We trained hard, but it seemed that every time we were beginning to form up into teams, we would be reorganized. I was to learn later in life that we tend to meet any new situation by reorganizing; and a wonderful method it can be for creating the illusion of progress while producing confusion, inefficiency, and demoralization.

-Petronius Arbiter, 210 B.C.

This chapter relates the experience of CelsiusTech AB, a Swedish naval defense contractor that successfully adopted a product line approach to building complex software-intensive systems. Called Ship System 2000 (SS2000), their product line consists of shipboard command-and-control systems for Scandinavian, Middle Eastern, and South Pacific navies.

This case study illustrates the entire Architecture Business Cycle (ABC), but especially shows how a product line architecture led CelsiusTech to new business opportunities. Figure 15.1 shows the roles of the ABC stakeholders in the CelsiusTech experience.