ENHANCING REUSABILITY THROUGH

VALUE BASED SOFTWARE REPOSITORY

By: Muhammad Zahid Khan

 Ordinary and Value-based repository
2

 A software repository is a place where

various software components or artifacts are stored
 A value-based repository can respond to different
queries and provide intended object, code, model etc
 In Value-based repository data retrieval is done
according to client’s requirements criteria

01/22/2024
 Why need for Value-based repository?
3

 Various type of software repositories available

 Each of them perform different tasks
 Their main tasks are organization and maintenance of
huge volumes of data
 Major drawbacks: incresed search time, ambiguity,
Delayed Reusability etc.

Enhancing Reusability through Value Based Software Repository

01/22/2024
 Standard organizational repository
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system

End-users/clients

CEO/Project
manager

Standard
Standard
Software
Software
Requirement repository
repository
Gathering Team

Development
Team

Enhancing Reusability through Value Based Software Repository

01/22/2024
 Some major Drawbacks:
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 No standard of data storing most folders doesn’t

convey meaningful info.
 No differentiation mechanism among old and
newly stored artifacts
 Management/audit system people accessing
repository missing.

Enhancing Reusability through Value Based Software Repository

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 Drawbacks contd…
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 Absence of systematic content removal

 No proper artifact ranking method present
 Indexing of components residing repository
missing
 A proper tagging mechanism unavailable

Enhancing Reusability through Value Based Software Repository

01/22/2024
 Proposed
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 To Overcome Those Draw Backs A Global value

based “central repository” concept along with some
innovate features were introduced.
 An “access management/audit system” and users
through which users will interact
 A proper “business standard” followed for storing
all components.

Enhancing Reusability through Value Based Software Repository

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 Proposed system contd…
8

 “Classification standard” also reside in the value-

based repository
 Proper “Tagging mechanism” applied for quick
access in future
 Value-based software repository maintain an
“index” of stored items
 “Systematic ranking” done for each software
component based upon most recent stored one.

Enhancing Reusability through Value Based Software Repository

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 Proposed system contd…
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 Value-based repository have directory of

“customized reusable artifacts “contain generic
components
 All system users add important and reusable
components in repository only after approving
from audit system.

Enhancing Reusability through Value Based Software Repository

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10

CEO/Project manager

Report generation Value

Valuebased
basedCentral
Centralrepository
repository
Requirements
Capturing Team Legacy Support Ranking

Customization
Tagging

Development Team/users within Audit/Access management

organization Indexing
Classification

Audit/access management
Developers/users from other
cities/continents

Proposed value-based central repository

01/22/2024
Enhancing Reusability through Value Based Software Repository
 Validation
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 To validate our proposed model we took a case study

of a telecom company.
 Company repository resides on simple FTP server
 Directory structure was:
• Root directory
• End user requirements specification documents
• A lot of entity relationship diagrams (ERDs)
• Various user request forms(URFs)
• Component off the shelf (COTs)
• Various data flow diagrams( DFDs)
• Development codes, SQL codes, scripts and java libraries etc
• Majority of folders created by different departments

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Enhancing Reusability through Value Based Software Repository
 Implementing Central Value based
repository through Rule Based Validation
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 To enhance the performance of existing repository,

we modified existing architecture and introduced
some set of rules
 Implemented the value-based repository concept
 Gives some promising results in searching,
management, classification, better reusability
suggestions and improvement in overall system
efficiency

Enhancing Reusability through Value Based Software Repository

01/22/2024
 Set of rules were:
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 Classification: The reusable components were firstly

classified into distinct categories based on document type and
functional capabilities
 Two main categories used in this work include: Documents
(with sub-categories) and Software artifacts (with sub-
categories)
 Customization: Developers were asked to save all generic
codes into the customization directory

Enhancing Reusability through Value Based Software Repository

01/22/2024
 Set of rules contd…
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 Tagging: Each user were asked to enter appropriate keywords

for each item he/she wanted to save in the repository
 Indexing: A keyword indexing was performed for search
optimization for the reusable components
 Ranking: Proper ranking was performed and priority levels
were set as (high, low, medium) depending upon their value
 Web Base Access: A proper web base access provided to the
repository

Enhancing Reusability through Value Based Software Repository 01/22/2024

 Set of rules contd…
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 Legacy support: Software components having repository

residing age exceeded five years will retained in legacy
support directory.
 Aging: The reusable components which attain the timeframe
of twenty years are automatically discarded from the
repository
 Audit: Each user prior to saving the artifacts in repository
identifies appropriate keywords explain the contents available
in the artifact. Verified items will stored in repository.
 Access management: Users can only search and copy items
whereas deletion, modification, updation lies with
administrators and CEOs
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Enhancing Reusability through Value Based Software Repository
 Transformation of existing system into
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rule based
 Transformation of the organization existing system into rule
based took care of the majority of drawbacks mentioned
earlier we took following steps:
• Classification of software artifacts into two main categories and
corresponding sub categories done and this information along with other
attributes stored into a database table in structured format.
• We introduced a proper tagging mechanism for each artifact
• A verification system was introduced for checking appropriate keywords
of reusable artifact by the administrator

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Enhancing Reusability through Value Based Software Repository
 Transformation of existing system
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into rule based
• Keyword indexing performed on database table for search optimization
• An interface was created to give proper search facility to users. which
supports advanced searching features for performance enhancement.
• Importance/worth of each reusable component was assessed by providing
appropriate priority to each item.
• Legacy support rule was introduced to sift all legacy artifacts.
• Component aging mechanism was introduced to take care of repository
volume maintenance
• Access management procedure was introduced to grant privileges to the
users as per their intended usage of the artifacts

Enhancing Reusability through Value Based Software Repository

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18

Sr No. Attribute.
1 ID
2 Main Category (1.Documents, 2.Software Artifacts)
3 Sub-Category

(1a. RFPs, 1b. URFs, 1c. DFDs, 1d. ERDs, 1e. Design
documents…….)

2a. Codes, 2b. Scripts, 2c. DB queries, 2d. Modules, 2e. Architectural
patterm,2f. Commercial off the shelf (COTS)………………….……)
4 Location/Path
5 Date of Creation
6 Priority (Low, Medium, High)
7 Index Terms
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Enhancing Reusability through Value Based Software Repository
 Validation Results
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 Organized the whole reusable artifacts according to their

priority
 data transformed into a structured form
 Unauthorized deletion or saving reusable artifacts eliminated
 Categorization of all reusable software artifacts help the
searcher in a positive way
 Keyword indexing make the searching process more faster
 advance search feature introduced in the system enable the
searching mechanism quick and gives a search motivation
 Overall system and search efficiency vastly increased.

Enhancing Reusability through Value Based Software Repository

01/22/2024