Review of Software Reuse Processes

Abstract

Clients expect that enterprise software systems, which are continually growing in complexity, are of high quality, with reasonable price and have a short time to market. To find ways to meet with the increasing demands of business, software engineers are forced to find ways to streamline development process. Software reuse is believed to be one such approach. Companies that have adopted its techniques to their development process have reported useful improvements in development productivity and quality. The practices of reuse have proven not to be simple and there are many misconceptions about how to implement and gain benefits out of it. Effective reuse is not a simple addition to existing software development processes; it puts strong demands on development methods in order to be successful. Our research, based on the literature and empirical results, presents basic principles of software reuse. Driving factors that facilitates reuse are also presented together with potential benefits and key issues to consider in order to successfully adapting this approach.