TABLE OF CONTENTS Commonization is the story of similarities and differences, of patterns among multiple systems. In a collection of systems, what is common to all and what varies? And which of the commonalities and variabilities do we want to model? By focusing on models of collections of systems rather than individual systems, we can capture patterns in a given domain or discipline, and those patterns represent knowledge. Commonization is the model space dimension that enables knowledge to be accumulated in the model space, shared, and used in the application of SE. The region of a model is important in this dimension.
Much of the depiction of engineering models in Chapter 6 reflects how we often think of such models: as models of one specific system the one we are building or analyzing. If we are building system S, we typically write a requirements spec R that we view as the requirements of S, and we describe an architecture A that we view as the architecture of S.
But in any engineering discipline, as the discipline matures, certain common patterns emerge as common problems and common solutions. In automotive engineering, while cars have evolved over time, the basic function of transporting a few people from point A to point B has remained the same. And while engineers and designers have continually reinvented the car, the general design, the basic set of interacting parts, has been fairly stable. The same situation exists in other engineering disciplines. General patterns...
