this article we survey metrics and models of software reuse and reusability, and

Today’s software developments are faced with steadily increasing expectations: software has to be developed faster, better, and cheaper. At the same time, application complexity increases. Meeting these demands requires fast, continuous learning and the reuse of past experience on the part of the project teams. Thus, learning and reuse should be supported by well-defined processes applicable to all kinds of experience which are stored in an organizational memory. In this paper, we introduce a tool architecture supporting continuous learning and reuse of all kinds of experience from the software engineering domain and present the underlying methodology. 1.

This article outlines an approach that avoids these problems by choosing a retrieval method that utilizes minimal repository structure to effectively support the process of finding software components. The approach is demonstrated through a pair of proof-ofconcept prototypes: PEEL, a tool to semiautomatically identify reusable components, and CodeFinder, a retrieval system that compensates for the lack of explicit knowledge structures through a spreading activation retrieval process. CodeFinder also allows component representations to be modified while users are searching for information. This mechanism adapts to the changing nature of the information in the repository and incrementally improves the repository while people use it. The combination of these techniques holds potential for designing software repositories that minimize up-front costs, effectively support the search process, and evolve with an organization's changing needs.

Locating software items is difficult, even for knowledgeable software designers, when searching in large, complex and continuously growing libraries. This paper describes a technique, we term active browsing. An active browser suggests to the designer items it estimates to be close to the target of the search. The novel aspect of active browsing is that it is entirely unobtrusive: it infers its similarity measure from the designer's normal browsing actions, without any special input. Experiments are presented in which the active browsing system succeeds 40% of the time in identifying the target before the designer has found it. An additional experiment indicates that this approach does, indeed, speed-up search.

Abstract not found

Repositories must be designed to meet the evolving and dynamic needs of software development organizations. Current software repository methods rely heavily on classification, which exacerbates acquisition and evolution problems by requiring costly classification and domain analysis efforts before a repository can be used effectively. This paper outlines an approach in which minimal initial structure is used to effectively find relevant software components while methods are employed to incrementally improve repository structures. The approach is demonstrated through PEEL, a tool to semi-automatically identify reusable components, and CodeFinder, a retrieval system that compensates for the lack of explicit knowledge structures through spreading activation retrieval and allows component representations to be incrementally improved while users are searching for information. The combination of these techniques yields a flexible software repository that minimizes up-front costs and improves...

There are four fundamental aspects of use and reuse in building systems from components: conceptualization, retrieval, selection and correct use. The most important barrier to use and reuse, initially at least, is that of conceptualization. The Inscape Environment is a specification-based software development environment (SDE) integrated by the constructive use of formal interface specifications. The purpose of the formal interface specifications and the semantic interconnections (created and maintained as software is built and evolved) is to make explicit the invisible semantic dependencies that result in conventionally built systems. The important ingredient provided by Inquire in conceptualization, retrieval, selection and use is the set of predicates that describe the semantics of the elements in the interface. These predicates define the abstractions that are germane to the module interface and describe the properties of data objects and the assumptions and results of operations i...

Today's software developments are faced with steadily increasing expectations: software has to be developed faster, better, and cheaper. At the same time, application complexity increases. Meeting these demands requires fast, continuous learning and the reuse of experience on the part of the project teams. Thus, learning and reuse should be supported by well-defined processes applicable to all kinds of experience which are stored in an organizational memory. In this paper, we introduce a tool architecture supporting continuous learning and reuse of all kinds of experience from the software engineering domain and present the underlying methodology.

While many reusable methods assume that developers will eventually become motivated to search for reusable components, few have addressed the issue of identifying when in the development process potentially reusable information exists. In this paper, a method is introduced that embeds reusable information in a process model that is customized to the specific needs of development efforts. By reusing these processes, projects draw on the collective experiences of the organization to apply known best practices to specific business requirements. A formal deviation process is used to allow development efforts to modify the process to suit their needs. To ensure continuous acquisition of reusable process information, deviations become part of the defined process so that future efforts with similar characteristics can use the same processes.

: As organizations implement systematic software reuse programs to improve productivity and quality, they must be able to measure their progress and identify the most effective reuse strategies. This is done with reuse metrics and models. In this paper, we survey metrics and models of software reuse and reusability, and provide a classification structure that will help users select them. Six types of metrics and models are reviewed: cost-benefit models, maturity assessment models, amount of reuse metrics, failure modes models, reusability assessment models, and reuse library metrics. Introduction Software reuse, the use of existing software artifacts or knowledge to create new software, is a key method for significantly improving software quality and productivity. Reusability is the degree to which a thing can be reused. To achieve significant payoffs a reuse program must be systematic [Frakes and Isoda 94]. Organizations implementing systematic software reuse programs must be able to ...