Practical Software Reuse

Right context, software reuse promises high value to businesses that develop software, opening the door to radical improvements in their software capability (productivity, cost, time to market). Attempts to adopt reuse without a sound understanding of the range of issues involved, however, can lead to expensive failure. This book is for those who are wondering whether they should adopt reuse and how, and also to those who have already started to adopt it but are wondering where they may be going wrong and how they could do better. It consistently emphasizes the practical issues that influence success or failure in reuse; and it offers a concise and balanced coverage of the essentials of the subject, rather than going into undue depth or detail on some topics at the expense of others. It occupies the central ground between being on the one hand an academic textbook and on the other hand a cookbook with ready-made recipes for exactly "how to do it". The authors have drawn on their extensive experience of reuse and of software process improvement to provide a readable and balanced coverage of the subject. This book is suitable for business executives, software managers and software developers, regardless of whatever kind of software or applications are developed by their organisations, and whatever the size of those organisations. A special feature of the book is the frequent use of experience notes, drawn from the real-life experience of organisations that have embarked on the reuse adventure.

Does not focus on the technical issues, although there is a chapter on the technology

1. Introducing Software Reuse.- 1.1 First of All.- 1.2 Definition and Basic Essentials.- 1.3 Some Further Introductory Essentials.- 1.4 Systematic Reuse - Crossing Frontiers.- 1.5 A Note on the Experience Base Used in This Book.- 2. Reusable Software Assets.- 2.1 What Is a Software Asset?.- 2.2 What Are the Characteristics of Reusable Assets?.- 2.3 Managing Software Assets.- 2.4 Assets vs Objects.- 3. Reuse Repository.- 3.1 Who Needs a Repository?.- 3.2 Requirements for a Reuse Repository.- 3.3 Repositories on the Internet.- 3.4 Tool Categories on the Market.- 3.5 Key Points in the Choice of an Asset Repository.- 4. Reuse Processes.- 4.1 What Processes Do We Need?.- 4.2 Starting a Corporate Reuse Programme: The Reuse Introduction Process.- 4.3 Practising Reuse: Asset Production and Application Production Processes.- 4.4 A Summarized Vision on Processes: How Does Reuse Affect Traditional Software Processes?.- 5. Managing Reuse.- 5.1 The Management Issues.- 5.2 To Reuse or Not To Reuse? the Big Question.- 5.3 Reuse for All, and All for Reuse.- 5.4 Adapting the Work Structure.- 6. Reuse Metrics.- 6.1 General Aspects of a Metrics Programme.- 6.2 A Typical Reuse Metrics Programme.- 7. Reuse Techniques and Technologies.- 7.1 Rationale.- 7.2 Reuse-Enabling Architectures.- 7.3 Object-Oriented Techniques.- 7.4 Design Patterns.- 7.5 Object-Oriented Frameworks.- 7.6 Component-Based Development.- 7.7. Agent-Based Systems.- 7.8 Comparison of Techniques.- 8. Two Major Case Histories.- 9. Two Smaller Case Histories.- 10. Experience Review and Success Factors.- 10.1 The Experience Base.- 10.2 Analysis of Experience.- 10.3 A Reuse Introduction Decision Sequence.- 10.4 Conclusion.- Acronyms.- Selected Bibliography.- Index 219.