A Configuration Management Strategy for Model-based Product Line Engineering in Aircraft Systems Development

model-based systems engineering;model-based product line engineering;change and configuration management

Aircraft systems development is complex and time-consuming. Model-based Product Line Engineering (MBPLE) aims to reuse assets between projects to accelerate the development of systems at their early stage. Despite guidance from standards, MBPLE practitioners still face the challenge of deploying an appropriate configuration management strategy. This paper presents and demonstrates a configuration management strategy to support practitioners deploying MBPLE for aircraft systems development. We developed this strategy to comply with ISO/IEC 26580 and address pending standard ambiguities using best practices from product lines for systems, software, business processes, and systems of systems. The proposed strategy supports long-term product line evolution, management of different asset types, and independent product environments