Towards Improving Aspect-Oriented Software Reusability Estimation

Abstract

Nowadays, large numbers of organizations may prefer Aspect-Oriented Programming (AOP), which is an enhancement to Object-Oriented Programming (OOP). This is due to the concepts that have been added and helped in producing more flexible and reusable components. As a result, AOP has directed attention to software reuse, which is a significant topic for researchers and offers several advantages for organizations. Software reuse is based on reusability attributes which indicate the possibility of a component that was built to be reused in developing a new system. It is one of the most essential attributes to evaluate the quality of a system’s components. Many models have been built to estimate the reusability of the software but most of them are not dedicated to Aspect-Oriented Software (AOS). This study aims to establish a ground for AOS reusability estimation and measurement based on a new model and its associated equations depending on six attributes that impact AOS reusability negatively and/or positively. Four attributes of them have been included in previous studies which are coupling, cohesion, design size, and messaging. Two new attributes have been proposed in this study, which are complexity, and generality. Both of these attributes have been measured based on the metrics that have also been proposed in this study. A new equation to calculate AOS reusability has been proposed in this research work. Seven Aspect projects have been employed as a case study to apply the proposed equation.