Review By: Ann E. Drinkwater
10/27/2010As the title suggests, this material is mostly geared towards technical readers with engineering backgrounds. Readers in management and business process roles could also benefit, but may utilize the material in a different manner. The book contains a number of chapters on organizational and managerial issues followed by methodologies and processes, technical issues, and industry experiences and case studies.

There are many contributing writers in this book, which make the material more of a summary of software product line engineering practices versus specific practical applications. There are case studies that combine and apply the concepts throughout. However, due to the sheer volume of topics, this is a difficult endeavor. Significant research went into the creation of this book and most of the topics will require the reader to conduct further research. This isn't necessarily a bad thing, just something of which the reader should be aware.

I would like to have seen additional summary and takeaway sections. Most chapters have a summary section, but not all. For those that do, they are very condensed. It would be nice to see bullet points and specific techniques for application. Because each chapter was written by a different author, the style and viewpoints differ throughout. This can make already complex topics even more difficult. With the size of this material and the organization of content, I think I'd personally invest in other material focused either on business/management or technical procedures. Overall I think the book’s material adds value but could be better organized, focused, and targeted. It would be a good reference material to use for the diagrams and concepts.

With degrees in organizational leadership and development and technology management, I completely appreciate and can relate to the focus on organizational dynamics and readiness for technology projects. In this book, the authors cover the organization’s readiness to accept alternative approaches as well as the importance of how to structure software products for reuse. The authors highlight the fact that creating software products requires us to:

• Change the way people think about system building
• Institute new practices and procedures
• Design new organizational interfaces
• Reorganize staff

Specific areas I found useful and applicable in my role of project, product, and program management include:

• The IDEAL model for managing change
• The balanced scorecard
• The product management pyramid
• The out-of-the-box development model
• Security services for application systems
• Discussions on business process management

Applied Software Product Line Engineering offers best practices and productivity improvements tips for designing software products.