Big performance improvements through smarter data referencing for product line engineering
For teams managing complex product variants or system configurations, product line engineering isn’t a nice-to-have, it’s an absolute necessity. And in Codebeamer, Working-Sets are the core feature enabling this flexibility.
This summer, Codebeamer 3.1 is introducing a major upgrade to how Working-Sets handle data – one that will significantly boost performance, simplify workflows, and reduce overhead.
Let’s break down what’s changing and what it means for your teams.
A Quick Primer: What Is Product Line Engineering?
Product line engineering (PLE) is a structured approach to developing related products or variants using a shared core of assets. Instead of reinventing the wheel each time, teams manage common requirements, components, tests, and other artifacts across multiple product versions and product variants.
The result is a faster time to market, better reuse, and more consistent quality, even in highly regulated industries.
Working-Sets in Codebeamer: The Current State
In Codebeamer, Working-Sets act as curated subsets of artifacts – grouping together requirements, tests, risks, and other tracker items for a particular product configuration.
Until now, when you created a Working-Set, Codebeamer duplicated the data to form a standalone set. While functional, this approach introduced several limitations:
- Performance degradation in large-scale projects
- Storage overhead due to data duplication
- Complex synchronization needs between source and Working-Set data
It worked, but it wasn’t super efficient.
What’s New in Codebeamer 3.1: Reference-Based Working-Sets
Starting with version 3.1 (coming summer 2025), Working-Sets will no longer rely on data duplication. Instead, they’ll use smart referencing to recreate the Working-Set view dynamically, without copying the actual content.
Here’s why this matters:
Massive performance improvements: No more redundant data to manage or slow-downs in large product landscapes.
Reduced storage usage: Save system resources while scaling your reuse strategy.
Real-time consistency: Changes to the original artifacts reflect instantly across Working-Sets, reducing sync errors and improving traceability.
This update is a major leap forward for organizations managing multiple product configurations under one roof.
What This Means for You
For our clients building product lines with high variability, this update brings faster performance across all product configurations and a more scalable reuse of assets without managing duplicates.
With Codebeamer 3.1, Working-Sets become lighter, faster, and easier to manage – so your teams can focus on engineering, not workarounds.
Ready to Rethink How You Use Working-Sets?
We’re already helping clients prepare for this transition and optimize their product line engineering strategy with the upcoming version in mind.
Want to understand how this change could improve your setup? Let’s chat – we’d be happy to walk you through it in a guided session.
DISCLAIMER: While all our content is researched and written in-house, we do use generative AI tools to refine our writing style and produce accompanying images.