Software factory

A software factory is a structured collection of related software assets that aids in producing computer software applications or software components according to specific, externally defined end-user requirements through an assembly process. A software factory applies manufacturing techniques and principles to software development to mimic the benefits of traditional manufacturing. Software factories are generally involved with outsourced software creation. A software factory is a structured collection of related software assets that aids in producing computer software applications or software components according to specific, externally defined end-user requirements through an assembly process. A software factory applies manufacturing techniques and principles to software development to mimic the benefits of traditional manufacturing. Software factories are generally involved with outsourced software creation. In software engineering and enterprise software architecture, a software factory is a software product line that configures extensive tools, processes, and content using a template based on a schema to automate the development and maintenance of variants of an archetypical product by adapting, assembling, and configuring framework-based components. Since coding requires a software engineer (or the parallel in traditional manufacturing, a skilled craftsman) it is eliminated from the process at the application layer, and the software is created by assembling predefined components instead of using traditional IDE's. Traditional coding is left only for creating new components or services. As with traditional manufacturing, the engineering is left to creation of the components and the requirements gathering for the system. The end result of manufacturing in a software factory is a composite application.