In this paper, we discuss component technologies in the context of information system (IS) families. An IS family is characterized by common requirements, shared by all the family members, and variant requirements that may differ across family members. Many variant requirements are non-local, i.e., they cannot be confined to a single system component, on contrary, they affect many components in complex ways. An effective generic architecture for an IS family should provide means to handle anticipated and unexpected variant requirements and support evolution of the family over years. In the paper, we illustrate problems that arise in supporting IS families and describe a generic architecture that includes global, cross-component structures to deal with changes during customization and evolution of an IS family.
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