Applying Feature‐Based Systems and Software Product Line Engineering in Unclassified and Classified Environments

Global aerospace and defense companies are reaping the benefits of feature-based systems and software product line engineering and management (FBPLE) in those situations where production must seamlessly span unclassified and classified environments (Gregg et al. 2014) (Gregg et al. 2015) (Krueger et al. 2014) (Lanman et al. 2011). These benefits include leveraging company talent while awaiting access to classified material; leveraging employees who are members of other sovereign states; and optimizing system production and maintenance for export / import. In this whitepaper we present the architectural design and accompanying business processes for a PLE factory and its artifacts that comprise unclassified and classified digital assets. These digital assets are used in automated generation of unclassified and classified product instances. All production activities occur within a single logical enterprise spanning multiple information systems comprising multiple security zones. 1 Digital assets are artifacts that can be managed on an information system, and include software, hardware design specifications, bills of materials, team schedules & other management artifacts, and more. 2 A security zone in this context is a collection of one or more information system segments with rules-driven control of inbound and outbound traffic, establishing a perimeter within which sensitive or classified information is processed.