Practical Software Reuse

by Ezran, Michel; Morisio, Maurizio; Tully, Colin J.

• ISBN13: 9781852335021
• ISBN10: 1852335025
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2002-05-01
• Publisher: Springer-Verlag New York Inc

Summary

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.

Table of Contents

Readers' Guide	xv
Author Biographies	xix
Introducing Software Reuse	1	(26)
First of All	1	(1)
Definition and Basic Essentials	2	(12)
Reuse Is a Systematic Software Development Practice	3	(1)
Reuse Employs a Stock of Building Blocks	4	(3)
Reuse Expoits Similarities in Requirements and/or Architecture Between Applications	7	(3)
Reuse Offers Substantial Benefits in Productivity, Quality and Business Performance	10	(4)
Some Further Introductory Essentials	14	(8)
There Are Various Routes by Which Assets Achieve Reuse	15	(1)
There Is an Important Relationship Between Reuse and Software Process Maturity	16	(2)
Reuse Is an Investment, Whether or Not You Call It That	18	(1)
Reuse May Be Pursued Within the Wider Business Context of Product Line Practice	19	(3)
Systematic Reuse - Crossing Frontiers	22	(3)
Systematic Reuse as a Critical Transition	22	(1)
Why So Long?	23	(2)
A Note on the Experience Base Used in This Book	25	(2)
Reusable Software Assets	27	(22)
What Is a Software Asset?	27	(8)
A Software Asset Is a Software Product	28	(1)
What Kind of Asset?	28	(2)
Asset Granularity	30	(1)
What Is an Asset Made of? The Asset Model	30	(4)
Technical Strategies	34	(1)
What Are the Characteristics of Reusable Assets?	35	(3)
General Criteria: Quality and Reusability	36	(1)
Functional Criteria	36	(1)
Technical Criteria	37	(1)
Managing Software Assets	38	(6)
Asset Life Circle	38	(1)
Organizing Asset Acquisition	38	(2)
Make or Buy?	40	(4)
Assets vs Objects	44	(5)
Is Neither Necessary Nor Sufficient	45	(1)
Is an `Enabling' Factor	45	(1)
What About Business Objects?	46	(3)
Reuse Repository	49	(16)
Who Needs a Repository?	49	(1)
Requirements for a Reuse Repository	50	(6)
What Is Stored Inside a Repository?	50	(1)
Functions of a Repository	51	(3)
Non-Functional Requirements	54	(2)
Repositories on the Internet	56	(1)
Tool Categories on the Market	57	(4)
Reuse-Specific	57	(2)
Repositories	59	(1)
Intranet and Groupware Tools	60	(1)
Key Points in the Choice of an Asset Repository	61	(4)
Reuse Processes	65	(28)
What Processes Do We Need?	65	(10)
What Is a Process?	65	(1)
Why Are Reuse Processes Necessary?	66	(2)
Extending Reuse Boundaries	68	(2)
The Producer-Consumer Paradigm	70	(1)
Different Ways of Practising Reuse	71	(2)
An Overview of Reuse Processes	73	(1)
Who Does What?	74	(1)
Starting a Corporate Reuse Programme: The Reuse Introduction Process	75	(4)
Should I Go for Reuse?	76	(2)
The Software Productivity Consortium Reuse Adoption Process	78	(1)
Practising Reuse: Asset Production and Application Production Processes	79	(11)
The REBOOT Process Model	79	(1)
Jacobson, Griss and Jonsson Process Model	80	(1)
Should I Practise Domain Engineering?	81	(2)
Processes in the Field	83	(1)
Qualifying and Evaluating Assets	84	(1)
Managing Risks When Reusing	85	(1)
Advertising Assets	86	(1)
Communicating About Reuse	87	(1)
Maintaining Assets	88	(1)
Managing and Improving Reuse Efficiency	89	(1)
A Summarized Vision on Processes: How Does Reuse Affect Traditional Software Processes?	90	(3)
Managing Reuse	93	(18)
The Management Issues	93	(1)
To Reuse or Not To Reuse? - the Big Question	94	(4)
Reuse for All, and All for Reuse	98	(3)
Adapting the Work Structure	101	(10)
Conditioning Factors	102	(4)
Key Decisions	106	(4)
Final Comments on Work Structure	110	(1)
Reuse Metrics	111	(16)
General Aspects of a Metrics Programme	111	(3)
A Typical Reuse Metrics Programme	114	(13)
G1	114	(3)
G2	117	(1)
G3	118	(1)
G4	119	(2)
G5	121	(1)
G6	122	(1)
What To Count as Reused?	122	(5)
Reuse Techniques and Technologies	127	(28)
Rationale	127	(1)
Reuse-Enabling Architectures	128	(5)
Three-Tier Architecture	129	(2)
Multi-Layered, Web-Enabled Architecture	131	(1)
Internet Systems Architectures	131	(2)
Object-Oriented Techniques	133	(1)
Design Patterns	134	(2)
Object-Oriented Frameworks	136	(4)
Component-Based Development	140	(10)
Client-Side Components	142	(2)
Server-Side Components	144	(4)
Internet Components	148	(1)
From Component Reuse to Information Reuse	149	(1)
Agent-Based Systems	150	(1)
Comparison of Techniques	151	(4)
Developing With Reuse: Which Types of Artefacts Are Reused?	151	(1)
Developing for Reuse: Which Phase of the Software Life Cycle Does the Technique Involve?	152	(3)
Two Major Case Histories	155	(16)
Two Smaller Case Histories	171	(18)
Experience Review and Success Factors	189	(22)
The Experience Base	189	(10)
Analysis of Experience	199	(7)
Successes and Failures in General	199	(2)
Successes in More Detail	201	(3)
Failures in More Detail	204	(2)
A Reuse Introduction Decision Sequence	206	(2)
Conclusion	208	(3)
Acronyms	211	(6)
Selected Bibliography	217	(2)
Index	219