Scale changes everything, but...

Abstract

Why does it change? How does it change? Ultra-large scale systems [Northrop, 2006 1] exceed our ability to manage and tax our ability to understand and yet the infrastructure modern society needs, such as the power grid, is in fact at this scale. How does this new scope affect software product line organizations? Some have suggested that ecosystems are a natural follow on to software product lines, but what is the transition and which concerns does this address? And what changes as the scale increases even more?