It is generally acknowledged that the transitioning process to a product line engineering approach is not trivial and as such requires a planned transition process. Different classifications of transition strategies have been proposed in the literature. It appears that these classification schemes are usually based on a single dimension. However, the adoption of a transition strategy is dependent on various criteria and very often it is not easy to characterize the required transition strategy. An appropriate characterization of the transition strategy is important for carrying out the right transition activities and steps to provide an operational product line engineering approach. In this paper, we first provide a conceptual model for defining the concepts related to transition strategies and then propose a multi-dimensional classification approach that aims to provide a more complete view on transition strategies. © 2010 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg.