Systems and Software Product Line Engineering (PLE) has gone mainstream in complex engineering environments and is being increasingly adopted by many businesses.  We will provide an overview of the recently released ISO 26508: “Methods and Tools for the Feature-based Approach to Systems and Software Product Line Engineering” which is an automated approach for managing a product portfolio as a single entity with variation as opposed to products developed in isolation.  There are numerous references that ascribe cost and efficiency benefits to organizations adopting a PLE approach, especially in the Aerospace and Defense sector.

However, realizing PLE adoption within simulation-based training systems has lagged other defense systems despite similar system complexity and reduced regulatory oversight.

The advantages of the PLE methodology includes documented benefits ranging from acquisition through development and sustainment.  These benefits are no less relevant to the modeling, simulation and training community than the systems they are modeled after.  The results achieved through this methodology can transform training by enabling more innovation throughout the development life-cycle.

The P-8 Mission Trainer architecture team is modernizing their development approach through use of PLE and Digital Engineering techniques to establish a single source of truth in a product line context.  This approach is key to enabling the scalability of the product line as additional programs are added to the portfolio.  The benefits are seen throughout the development life-cycle, across the concurrent baselines and is driving a culture focused on innovation. In this paper, we explore the benefits of PLE to large-scale training systems by primarily examining lessons learned from the Boeing P-8 training system architecture team along with supporting lessons found in other similar scale training system product lines.

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Additional Keywords
Systems Engineering, PLE, Feature Based Product Line Engineering, ISO 26580, P-8