APPLIES-motivation
Which specific needs in a company might be addressed by following a software product line approach?
It identifies drivers that motive the adoption of a software product line approach in a company.
APPLIES-preparation
To what extent a company is prepared for adopting a product line production approach?
It assessess to what extent a company is prepared to transit towards a product line approach and helps users to identify points where particular attention is necessary
Summary charts
What are my results?
They present a quantitative and graphical analysis about how your organization is doing in the dimensions under evaluation
What is it?
APPLIES stands for framework for evaluAting organization’s motivation and Preparation for adoPting product LInES. This framework intends to provide quality information to companies that want to know whether a product line is viable to their case or not.
APPLIES considers:
Opportunities, threats, weaknesses and strengths that can motivate a technology change addressed from a software product line-based approach.
Operational, technical and economic conditions that result in opportunities, threats, weaknesses and strengths that an organization should face when a software product line approach is introduced.
What kinds of organizations does APPLIES address?
Companies that have heard about software product lines and aren’t sure if this alternative is viable to their case or not.
Who will use APPLIES?
Consultants, project managers, technical leaders or any person interested in adopting a software product line approach
When is APPLIES useful?
When companies want information that support them deciding in favor or against adopting a software product line approach
Latest News
The APPLIES framework is being developed iteratively. The latest version available is 2.0.a.1. We are currently comparing and analyzing the results obtained from empirical evaluations carried out with different stakeholders in 2018. Soon we will launch a new version that integrates and consolidates the results obtained in these experiences in order to improve APPLIES and make it more relevant for those interested in adopting product line engineering.
Third version [under development]
As a novelty, this version will incorporate a ROI analysis. In addition, the motivational analysis will be expanded to include: (i) the benefits and disadvantages that a company has in[…]
Read moreSecond version (2.0.a1)
This version is the result of improving previous version based on the results of evaluating APPLIES retrospectively with a software company and interviewing five experts in product line engineering. Details[…]
Read moreFirst version (V1.0b2)
This version introduces the first version of APPLIES. This version was evaluated by two academic experts.
Details about this version are avaiable here
Read moreUsing APPLIES is free! It takes only four steps
1. Download our spreadsheet
2. Click on the option “enable macros” (macro security level should be set at medium level).
3. Answer the questions that belong to APPLIES-motivation and APPLIES-preparation.
4. Analyze the resulting charts
Part one
APPLIES Motivation
This part of APPLIES uses a set of concrete “signals”, called henceforth adoption drivers, which indicate that a product line approach could be useful for a company. Adoption drivers are positive or negative depending on whether they arise from company strengths, opportunities, threats or weaknesses.
The aim of APPLIES-motivation is to identify to what extent a product line approach could be useful for a company . To this end, APPLIES-motivation allows their users to identify whether a product line is a solution to tackle company’s threats, take advantage of company’s opportunities, strengthen company’s weaknesses or impulse company’s strengths.
How to use APPLIES-motivation?
Go through each adoption driver by selecting those aligned to the company’s case. Currently, APPLIES includes 20 adoption drivers. Most of them correspond to signals reported by companies with experience adopting product lines.
Some adoption drivers are:
“The company gains new customers due to the variability among its products”
Example strenght-based adoption driver
“The company has similar products that were implemented in completely different ways”
Example weakenes-based adoption driver
Part two
APPLIES Preparation
This part of the framework gathers key factors spread in the literature for assessing to what extent current and future company practices encourage or impede a product line engineering adoption. Spread factors are organized in a hierarchy of 67 sub-criteria, 17 assessment criteria, and three dimensions. This organization makes possible to evaluate systematically to what extent a company is prepared for adopting a product line production approach.
Subcriteria
Lower level of the hierarchy
Statements that users rate in a scale between “completely disagree” and “completely agree”
Example
“Relevant stakeholders will support the initiative for exploring a product line solution”
Assessment criteria
Middle level of the hierarchy
Factors that could encourage or restraint a product line adoption in a company.
Each assessment criteria has one or more subcriteria.
Example
Domain knowledge
Commitment of the managers
Potential products
Dimensions
Upper level of the hierarcy
Perspectives of analysis from which APPLIES-preparation assesses the company preparation.
Dimensions of analysis
Operational
Technical
Economic
How to use APPLIES-preparation?
Go through each assessment criterion and rate their sub-criteria. APPLIES-preparation automatically computes the score of each assessment criteria and updates the resulting charts. This score is an indicator of the performance of each criterion. Scores with a value near to five represent better performance than scores near to one.
Communication and training materials
Check our Research Gate project page ,you will find there our latest research publications.
User manuals and getting started tutorials are comming soonContact us
If you want to collaborate or you’re interested on using APPLIES contact us we’d love to hear from you!
About
APPLIES is an active research project developed in the frame of Luisa Rincon’s Ph.D. This project is led by Professors Camille Salinesi and Raúl Mazo from Paris 1 Panthéon Sorbonne University.
This project is supported by the following institutions
