CEO PERSPECTIVE
onePLE Studio - The Art & Science of Feature-based PLE. (Part 1 of 3)
Welcome to the opening installment of my 3-part series on onePLE Studio, an innovative new ingredient of BigLever’s holistic solution for Feature-based Product Line Engineering (PLE). onePLE Studio reflects the emerging trajectory of PLE, where there is now broad recognition among organizations doing complex systems engineering that Feature-based PLE provides essential benefits to their engineering and business mission.
BigLever’s onePLE Studio is based on the concept of an architect’s studio. For example, if you plan to remodel your house, you seek out a studio with acclaimed building architects who specialize in residential design and construction. During your first visit to the studio, the architect asks about the limitations of your home and what improvements you are seeking — maybe converting underutilized space in a game room into an extra bedroom, or expanding and modernizing the kitchen. The next step might be a site visit by the architect to survey the current construction and analyze the options for remodeling, based on the objectives for improvements and constraints such as existing load-bearing beams and walls. Then, blueprints and drawings are created, reviewed, and refined, based on various cost-benefit tradeoffs. Finally, a plan is created on how to incrementally remodel your home, possibly retaining functional living spaces during the renovation.
Studios in any discipline require a maturity in the science, art, engineering, standards, education, awareness, and industry demand for that discipline. Feature-based PLE has reached this requisite level of maturity, which has enabled BigLever to realize the innovation of onePLE Studio.
Feature-based PLE has followed the prototypical technology maturation curve, advancing from the groundbreaking visionary adopters, through remarkable success stories from the early adopters, and now squarely into the mainstream majority adopters. Contributors to this maturation include the International Council on Systems Engineering (INCOSE) Product Line Engineering International Working Group, which provides an effective forum for education, awareness, industry validation, and the sharing of industry best practices. The International Organization for Standardization and International Electrotechnical Commission (ISO/IEC) facilitated international consensus for the standardization of Feature-based PLE technology and methodology, ISO/IEC 26580:2021, Software and systems engineering — Methods and tools for the feature-based approach to software and systems product line engineering. The systems and software engineering industry now recognizes that virtually all systems engineering is performed in the context of a product line and therefore organizations must elevate their thinking from systems engineering of point solutions to system family engineering of product lines.
BigLever's onePLE Studio embraces all facets of this maturity to offer a scalable and broadly applicable solution for widespread mainstream Feature-based PLE adoption. The Studio aligns with, leverages, and contributes to industry best practices in the INCOSE PLE working group. It enables organizations to efficiently and reliably deploy ISO/IEC 26580 compliant PLE implementations. It embodies successful patterns of PLE adoption — the art and the science — from the last two decades of BigLever’s experience creating world-class, industry-leading PLE success stories.
BigLever onePLE Studio is illustrated in the figure below. Analogous to the residential architect’s studio example above, onePLE Studio works with an organization to define and guide a path from a current approach to a future Feature-based PLE approach of system family engineering, going from left to right across the center of the figure. Just like in the residential example, the current state is surveyed, options for renovation are analyzed based on the objectives for improvements, as well as the business and engineering constraints. Designs are created, reviewed, and refined, based on various cost-benefit tradeoffs. Finally, a plan is created on how to incrementally make the transition to Feature-based PLE while maintaining production schedules.
The Transition Map across the top of the figure shows that the onePLE Studio activities are organized into five horizontal tracks and divided into seven vertical stages. There is a continuous focus, from beginning to end, on the desired and actual benefits, which is illustrated across the bottom of the figure.
BigLever’s onePLE Studio
In Part 2 of this series, I will provide more detail on these elements and operations of the BigLever onePLE Studio. In the third and final installment in the series, I will provide perspective on the use cases of an organization coming to the onePLE Studio for help transitioning to modern Feature-based PLE and the benefits they can expect to experience working with the Studio.
Reach out directly to onePLE Studio if you would like to learn more or explore opportunities now!
Best regards,
Charlie
