Introduction

Software is becoming very

expensive:
a possible way to reduce cost:
reuse parts from previously made
software.
assemble software from off-the-shelf
components.
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Introduction
Advantages of reuse also
include:
reduced number of defects:
standard and well-tested
components are reused.
reduced development time:
provide early market access for
products.
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Software reuse
Software development with
reuse:
similar to an electronic
engineer building an electronic
circuit:
uses standard types of
electronic ICs and other
components. 3
What can be reused?

Specification
Design
Code
Test cases
At the most abstract level:
knowledge

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Reuse of Knowledge
More difficult compared to day-
to-day reuse of knowledge:
developers vary over time and
over projects
difficult to remember details of
potentially reusable development
knowledge.
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Why almost no software reuse
so far?
Engineers working in industry often
have a frustrated feeling:
current system is similar to last few
systems they have already built
everything is being built from scratch
current system is behind schedule:
no one has time to figure out what this
similarity really means.

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Another complaint
In spite of having software
components available for reuse:
programmers have preferred to
create their own, because:
available components are difficult
to understand
difficult to adapt to new application

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Basic Issues in
Software Reuse

Component creation
Component indexing
Search
Understanding
Adaptation
Repository maintenance
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Basic Issues
Component creation:
Identify reusable components
Component indexing:
classification of reusable
components
so that they can be easily
searched when we look for a
component to reuse.
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Basic Issues
Search:
search for right components
in a database of components
requires a proper method to
describe components

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Basic Issues
Understanding:
to decide whether we can use
some component
we need a precise and
sufficiently complete
understanding of what the
component does.
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Basic Issues
Adaptation:
A selected component may not
exactly fit the problem at hand
Tinkering with the code is not
satisfactory:
in any case justified only if
thoroughly understood

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Basic Issues
Repository maintenance:
component entering
tracking faulty components
new applications emerge
older applications become obsolete
components might need changes
obsolete components might have
to be removed
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Domain analysis

Aim:
identify reusable
components for a problem
domain.
identification of right kind of
reusable information is a
difficult problem. 14
Domain analysis
Domain analysis identifies:
objects, operations and
relationship among them.
Consider airline reservation:
objects are
seats, flights, airports, crew, meal
orders
Operations are
scheduling a flight, reserving a
seat, assigning a crew to a flight,
etc. 15
Domain analysis

Analysis of an application
domain:
to identify the reusable
components
Actual construction of reusable
components for a domain
is called domain engineering.
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Reuse at organization level

Reusability should be a standard

part in:
specification, design, implementation,
test, etc.
Ideally there is a steady flow of
reusable components:
in practice, things are not so simple.

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Reuse at organization level

Extracting reusable knowledge

from past projects:
presents difficulties not
encountered in working with a
current project
typically original developers are
no longer available for consultation.

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 Summary
Basic issues in reuse:
Component creation
Component indexing
Search
Understanding
Adaptation
Repository maintenance

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Summary
Creation of highly reusable
components is a very difficult
problem
a promising approach is domain
analysis
Domain analysis:
aims to identify reusable
components for a problem domain

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Summary
Application generators:
translate specifications into
application programs.
facilitate reuse
not very flexible, if new concepts
need to be supported.

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Summary
Reuse at organization level
assess product’s potential for
reuse
refine product for greater
reusability
integrate product with reuse
repository

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