Two processes to keep an eye on in the upcoming months are the EssUP (Essential Unified Process) and PLE (Product Line Engineering).

EssUP (Essential Unified Process)

The EssUP is scheduled to be released for use in Team Foundation Server (TFS) in the next couple of weeks, if everything stays on schedule.   This first release is suppose to consist of the practices along with templates and capabilities, and it will running in Visual Studio Team System 2005 (VSTS 2005)connected to Team Foundation Server.

The EssUP will provide a new option for those projects that need a light or medium level ceremony.  It will provide a path for those projects that need to be agile in nature.

The current practices in the EssUP are:

Process Essentials

Product Essentials

Use-Case Essentials

Component Essentials

Iterative Essentials

Architecture Essentials

Team Essentials

Model Essentials

Here is a paper on the EssUP which covers all the  practices in detail.

Framework for Software Product Line Practice

The Framework for Software Product Line Practice, Version 4.2 is being upgrade to version 5.0 some time this spring.  This will include upgrades to the content of the framework as well as the additions of new patterns and some changes to the current ones.

The Framework for Software Product Line Practice, Version 4.2 is available on line here.

The a list of the patterns are also available here.

To read about the patterns you must buy the book Software Product Lines: Practices and Patterns, by Paul Clements and Linda Northrop.

The changes that are coming will include a second edition of the book Software Product Lines: Practices and Patterns.

Product Line Engineering Links:

Process Ladder 

STATIC MODELING IN PRODUCT LINE ENGINEERING

USE CASE MODELING IN PRODUCT LINE ENGINEERING

FEATURE MODELING IN PRODUCT LINE ENGINEERING

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