Research Topics and Future Trends

The PFE conference ended with a plenary debate revolving around research topics and future trends in the area of product family engineering. The organizers of the panel asked the conference participants to write down what they thought were the most interesting areas to research on. We took some of them for discussion during the plenary, and came out with a number of relevant trends. This paper summarizes the main findings, outlining the main research and development issues, and proposing, where appropriate, some hints for solutions.