Applying product line concepts in small and medium-sized companies

Small and medium-sized enterprises work under heavy constraints: They need to be very flexible and fast in their reaction to customer requests, thus limiting their possibility for long-term planning. In a partially publicly funded project, the authors have started to apply their Product Line Software Engineering method developed at Fraunhofer IESE, in six small and medium-sized companies addressing six different domains. The article presents first experience and lessons learned from 24 months of project work; including first results within the companies.