Measuring software reusability

Abstract

This paper cxamines various approaches to measuring st,/ihiare reusability. Knowing what makes software "reusable" can help us learn how to build new reusable components and help US to identify potentially useful modules in existing programs. The paper begins by establishing a taxonomy of approaches to reusability metrics based on their empirical or qualitative orientation. The paper then examines the disciplines, theories, and techniques used by numerous existing reusability measurernent niethods as they relate to the taxonomy. Recognizing that most of these niethods focus exclusively on internal characteristics of components and ignore emironmental factors, the paper challenges reusability researchers to incorporate domain attributes into their metrics. In fact, the upplication domain represents a critically itportant factor in whether or not we find a component reusable. The research, framework, and conclusions should provide a useful reference f . r per.rons interested in ways to determine tlic reusability of software.domain and meeting the organization's software needs. If we could extract this information efficiently, we could gain a valuable resource upon which to build future applications. Unfortunately, working with existing software poses several significant problems due to its inconsistent quality, style, documentation, and design. We need an economical way to find domain knowledge and useful artifacts within these programs. Measuring reusabilityThis paper examines metrics used to determine the reusability of software components. In light of the recent emphasis on software reuse, numerous research efforts have attempted to quantify our ability to use a component in new contexts. \LIany of the known empirical methods use a version of complexity metrics to measure reusability. I Iowever, many other objective and subjective criteria contribute to the question: \\%at makes software reusable?

A Preliminary Analysis of Software Engineering Metrics-based Criteria for the Evaluation of Learning Objects Reusability

“…Portability metrics measures the ability to transfer software from one system to another and is based on analyzing modularity and hardware/software context independence [14]. Learning objects portability can be measured as the context dependence at technological and socio-educational levels.…”

Quantifying Product Line Benefits

“…If the integration affects more than one product from the 3 As for Hypothesis 2, the assumption is made that the available set of resources is kept constant. On the other hand, the initial effort for integration may be higher in the product line case due to some higher complexity of the product line infrastructure.…”

“…At the moment we can only hypothesize the form of the quantitative relationship (cf. [1,3,4,5]); we urgently need to perform experiments and gather data to confirm or reject our hypotheses.…”

On the Relative Merits of Software Reuse

“…In theory, reuse can lower development cost, increase productivity, improve maintainability, boost quality, reduce risk, shorten life cycle time, lower training costs, and achieve better software interoperability [1,2]. However, in practice, studies have shown that reuse is not always the best choice: it may be hard to implement, and the benefits of reuse cannot be reliably quantified [1].…”