ISO/IEC 26550:2015 is the entry point of the whole suite of International Standards for software and systems product line engineering and management.

The scope of this International Standard is to

? provide the terms and definitions specific to software and systems product line engineering and management,

? define a reference model for the overall structure and processes of software and systems product line engineering and management and describe how the components of the product line reference model fit together, and

? define interrelationships between the components of the product line reference model.

ISO/IEC 26550:2015 does not describe any methods and tools associated with software and systems product line engineering and management. Descriptions of such methods and tools will appear in the consecutive International Standards (ISO/IEC 26551[1] to ISO/IEC 26556[2]). This International Standard does not deal with terms and definitions addressed by ISO/IEC/IEEE 24765:2010 that provides a common vocabulary applicable to all systems and software engineering work.

Whenever this International Standard refers to "products", it means "system-level products" consisting of software systems or both hardware and software systems. It may be useful for the engineering and management of product lines that consist of only hardware systems but it has not been explicitly created to support such hardware product lines. This International Standard is not intended to help the engineering, production, warehousing, logistics, and management of physical items that, possibly combined with software, comprise the products. These processes belong to other disciplines (e.g. mechanics, electronics).

NOTE Annex A provides further information on products.

ISO/IEC 26550:2015, including the product line reference model and the terms and definitions, has been produced starting from References [6], [7], and [8] which finally resulted in a broad consensus from National Member Bodies at the time of publication. In addition to this background process, structures from ISO/IEC 12207:2008, ISO/IEC/IEEE 15288:2015, ISO/IEC 15940:2006 and ISO/IEC 14102:2008 have been used as a baseline.

[1] Second edition to be published.

[2] Under development.