Three empirical studies of a software reuse reference model

The contribution of this paper is a reference model for the practice of software reuse. Our research thesis is that software development based upon a software reuse reference model improves quality of products, productivity of processes and product time‐to‐market for many software development enterprises. The definition and investigation of such a model has been carried out using three steps. First, the reference model is developed based on existing software reuse concepts. Second, this reference model is empirically studied using both legacy studies and lessons learned studies. Third, the impact of the reference model on software development productivity, quality, and time‐to‐market is empirically derived. Copyright © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

An empirical study of a software reuse reference model

In software engineering there is a need for technologies that will significantly decrease effort in developing software products, increase quality of software products and decrease time-to-markets. The software development industry can be improved by utilizing and managing software reuse with an “empirically validated reference model” that can be customized for different kinds of software development enterprises. Our research thesis is that software development based on a software reuse reference model improves the competitive edge and time-to-market of many software development enterprises. The definition and study of such a model has been carried out using four steps. First, the reference model developed here is based on the existing software reuse concepts. Second, this reference model is an empirical study which uses both legacy studies and lessons learned studies. Third, the impact of the reference model on software development effort, quality, and time-to-market is empirically derived. Fourth, an initial set of successful cases, which are based on the software reuse reference model utilization, are identified. The main contribution of this paper is a reference model for the practice of software reuse. A secondary contribution is an initial set of cases from software development enterprises which are successful in the practice of reuse in terms of decreased effort, increased quality and a high correlation in their application of our software reuse reference model activities.     

A model for software reuse

Software reusability is widely believed to be a key to help overcome the ongoing software crisis by improving software productivity and quality. New computer technology and the demands of an advancing society require new and more complicated software. It is unrealistic to expect that every software system can be developed solely reusing existing software; however, software reusability has proven to be a way of enhancing software productivity and quality in different organizations. It is also believed that reuse of code segments alone does not significantly reduce software development effort.By creating reuse support information while software is being developed (when the software is best known to software developers), the reuse effort for both software development and maintenance can be potentially reduced.In this paper, five types of RSI are presented: Semantic Web, Horizontal Web, Vertical Web, Syntactic Web, and Alternative Web. We collectively call these five webs a Quintet Web. The Semantic Web enables software developers to locate a software segment. The Horizontal Web provides a means to reuse a block of soflware along with other types of software from other phases of a development process. The inter-phase integration of software can be performed through this Web. The Vertical Web identifies the vertical relationship of a software block to its operational environment. The Syntactic Web locates all statements in which a variable is used. The Alternative Web provides alternative software blocks that perform an identical operation.A prototype of the Quintet Web is presented.     

软件复用经济学模型比较分析

说明了软件复用经济学模型的主要目的和任务,对目前国际上提出的12个模型进行了比较分析。将复用经济学模型划分为两类：成本收益模型和投资分析模型,并举例介绍了相关类型的模型。对分析的所有模型列表比较,分析了它们的适用情况和异同点,并对领域存在的问题进行了讨论。     

Quality improvement using a software reuse failure modes model

The paper presents a failure modes model of parts-based software reuse, and shows how this model can be used to evaluate and improve software reuse processes. The model and the technique are illustrated using survey data about software reuse gathered from 113 people from 29 organizations     

An empirical study of software reuse with special attention to Ada

Over the past several decades, numerous software technologies have been developed for overcoming the software crisis. Among these technologies, reuse has been recognized as one of the most important software technologies. Recently, it has gained substantial attention as a possible solution to the software crisis in Ada and other software communities. The purpose of this empirical study is to examine how organizations actually exploit reuse technologies and evaluates how reuse factors affect the rate of reuse in an organization. This study is an attempt to enhance the measurement of the rate of reuse and the effectiveness of reuse by establishing conceptual foundations in the literature for reuse and conducting an empirical investigation of organizations using Ada technology. This study differentiated software reuse into six criteria: domain, human, tool, organization, software metrics, and environment. The results of this study show that the rate of reuse significantly depends upon reuse capability, software development effort, object-oriented design capability, repository development effort, Ada technology capability, and domain capability     

Assessing the cost-effectiveness of software reuse: A model for planned reuse

Information systems development is typically acknowledged as an expensive and lengthy process, often producing code that is of uneven quality and difficult to maintain. Software reuse has been advocated as a means of revolutionizing this process. The claimed benefits from software reuse are reduction in development cost and time, improvement in software quality, increase in programmer productivity, and improvement in maintainability. Software reuse entails undeniable costs of creating, populating, and maintaining a library of reusable components. There is anecdotal evidence to suggest that some organizations benefit from reuse. However, many software developers practicing reuse claim these benefits without formal demonstration thereof. There is little research to suggest when the benefits are expected and to what extent they will be realized. For example, does a larger library of reusable components lead to increased savings? What is the impact of component size on the effectiveness of reuse? This research seeks to address some of these questions. It represents the first step in a series wherein the effects of software reuse on overall development effort and costs are modeled with a view to understanding when it is most effective.     

Experiences of a software reuse project

Despite the large number of successful software reuse cases reported, there are more than a few negative views that reuse has not yet delivered as expected. This is because of the lack of consensus on the applicative conditions of reuse technology and the size of the benefits that can be expected. This article describes a software reuse project conducted at Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corporation (NTT) Software Laboratories. Based on this experience, the article discusses such important aspects of software reuse as domain selection and analysis, impediments, incentives, and library tools. It concludes that successful software reuse requires the selection of appropriate domains, systematic development of reusable modules based on domain analysis, and the commitment of senior management.     

一种软件生产过程的复用技术模型研究

体系结构设计在软件开发整个过程中扮演着重要角色。软件复用是提高软件开发效率和改善软件质量的一项重要技术。基于上述原因,提出了软件开发过程的复用技术模型。     

A quantitative model of work-related fatigue: empirical evaluations

Systematic and quantitative management of work-related fatigue within workplaces has been a challenging task due to a lack of useful tools. A previous paper provided background and development of a work-related fatigue modelling approach. The current paper outlines model evaluations using sleep deprivation experiments and recommendations of work scheduling. Previous studies have reported cumulative effects of sleep restriction (4–5 h per night) on a number of measures. Model predictions were correlated against psychomotor vigilance task lapses (r= 0.92) and reaction time responses (slowest 10%,r= 0.91) as well as sleep latency (r=-0.97). Further correlations were performed on four measures from a 64 h continuous sleep deprivation study; that is objective vigilance (r=-0.75) as well as subjective performance (r=-0.75), sleepiness (r= 0.82) and tiredness (r= 0.79). Evaluation against current scheduling recommendations illustrated consistency with the literature with the exception that forward rotation did not provide benefits over backward rotation. The results indicate that model predictions correlate well across a range of objective and subjective measures. This relationship also appears to hold for cumulative and continuous sleep deprivation protocols. Future studies will also focus on field-based evaluation.     

A quantitative model of work-related fatigue: empirical evaluations

Systematic and quantitative management of work-related fatigue within workplaces has been a challenging task due to a lack of useful tools. A previous paper provided background and development of a work-related fatigue modelling approach. The current paper outlines model evaluations using sleep deprivation experiments and recommendations of work scheduling. Previous studies have reported cumulative effects of sleep restriction (4-5 h per night) on a number of measures. Model predictions were correlated against psychomotor vigilance task lapses (r = 0.92) and reaction time responses (slowest 10%, r = 0.91) as well as sleep latency (r = -0.97). Further correlations were performed on four measures from a 64 h continuous sleep deprivation study; that is objective vigilance (r = -0.75) as well as subjective performance (r = -0.75), sleepiness (r = 0.82) and tiredness (r = 0.79). Evaluation against current scheduling recommendations illustrated consistency with the literature with the exception that forward rotation did not provide benefits over backward rotation. The results indicate that model predictions correlate well across a range of objective and subjective measures. This relationship also appears to hold for cumulative and continuous sleep deprivation protocols. Future studies will also focus on field-based evaluation.     

Economics of software reuse

The author discusses the type of software that can and should be reused. At least 10 different software artifacts lend themselves to reusability. Breaking down the cost of manually producing these 10 artifacts lets us create a preliminary analysis of the return on investment (ROI) of reusing them, with an admittedly large margin of error. He discusses the barriers to full software reusability     

A multi-level analysis of factors affecting software developers’ intention to reuse software assets: An empirical investigation

Reuse of software assets in application development has held promise but faced challenges. In addressing these challenges, research has focused on organizational- and project-level factors while neglecting grass-root level adoption of reusable assets. Our research investigated factors associated with individual software developers’ intention to reuse software assets and integrated them in TAM. Towards that end, 13 project managers were interviewed and 207 software developers were surveyed in India. Results revealed that the technological-level (infrastructure), and individual-level factors (reuse-related experience and self-efficacy) were major determinants. Implications are discussed.     

Strategies for software reuse: a principal component analysis of reuse practices

This research investigates the premise that the likelihood of success of software reuse efforts may vary with the reuse strategy employed and, hence, potential reuse adopters must be able to understand reuse strategy alternatives and their implications. We use survey data collected from 71 software development groups to empirically develop a set of six dimensions that describe the practices employed in reuse programs. The study investigates the patterns in which these practices co-occur in the real world, demonstrating that the dimensions cluster into five distinct reuse strategies, each with a different potential for reuse success. The findings provide a means to classify reuse settings and assess their potential for success.     

Towards a formal framework for software reuse

It is reasonable to expect that the use of formal methods in software reuse will help improve the practice of this discipline as well as enhance our understanding of its products and processes. We have identified the following technical activities that take place in software reuse as candidates for a formal modeling: representing reusable assets, representing reuse queries, defining matching criteria, defining a storage structure, deriving measures of distance and deriving a calculus of program modification. In this paper we discuss how a simple mathematical model based on set theory and relation theory allows us to capture these activities in a unified, coherent framework.     

Introducing reuse of software designs into a company

There are various motivations for introducing reuse into a company. One company tries to lower its costs in the software production, another aims on improving the quality of their products, a third thinks of securing the know-how of experienced software engineers in case they leave the company. Each of these three goals causes a similiar situation demanding reuse.A longterm vision of an environment for software reuse and its possible support by tools is given in this paper. The starting point of the discussion is the ESPRIT-project PRACTITIONER (No. 1094). The results and the experience gained in this project are based on information retrieval, hypermedia, and CASE tools. This paper presents these results and the drawn conclusions. Furthermore, it explains the ongoing technical aspects of the installation of an environment supporting reuse.     

Repository evaluation of software reuse

The use and benefits of repository evaluation of software reuse are illustrated through an analysis of the evolving repositories of two large firms that recently implemented integrated CASE development tools. The analysis shows that these tools have supported high levels of software reuse, but it also suggests that there remains considerable unexploited reuse potential. The findings indicate that organizational changes will be required before the full potential of the new technology can be realized     

An empirical validation of a neural network model for software effort estimation

As software becomes more complex and its scope dramatically increases, the importance of research on developing methods for estimating software development efforts has perpetually increased. Such accurate estimation has a prominent impact on the success of projects. Out of the numerous methods for estimating software development efforts that have been proposed, line of code (LOC)-based constructive cost model (COCOMO), function point-based regression model (FP), neural network model (NN), and case-based reasoning (CBR) are among the most popular models. Recent research has tended to focus on the use of function points (FPs) in estimating the software development efforts, however, a precise estimation should not only consider the FPs, which represent the size of the software, but should also include various elements of the development environment for its estimation. Therefore, this study is designed to analyze the FPs and the development environments of recent software development cases. The primary purpose of this study is to propose a precise method of estimation that takes into account and places emphasis on the various software development elements. This research proposes and evaluates a neural network-based software development estimation model.