A software system to support the development and maintenance of complex product configurators

For years the use of software-based product configurators has produced a number of benefits for engineering-oriented companies. Achieving such benefits can be challenging, however, and configurator projects often fail because the tasks of developing and maintaining product configurators turn out to be much more complex and time consuming than anticipated. This paper presents and investigates a new type of documentation software, which aims at easing the tasks of developing and maintaining product configurators. The investigation includes: (1) a functionality analysis in which the new documentation software is compared with commonly applied types of software in configurator projects and (2) an interview-based usability study that includes six people in two companies. Based on these studies, the paper argues that the new documentation software (or similar software) has the potential to produce significant positive effects in configurator projects.