Making the reuse business work

Abstract

Software reuse technology is ready now. In fact, enough companies have demonstrated substantial improvement-often as much as 90% reuse-to assure that it can be achieved. If we take 15% as an approximation of the current rate of "passive" reuse that individual engineers achieve anyway, and 90% as the figure that more than a few organizations are achieving, that is a gain of six times. With this level of reuse, the overall cost savings are dramatic. Moreover, these organizations are achieving comparable gains in development time. They are getting a system into operation in months instead of years. The third great component of software system development (after cost of development and time to market) is quality. Quality implies a host of factors, many of which are hard to quantify or, at least, have not been quantified by most organizations. However, participants in successful reuse invariably believe that quality, however they define it, has improved. Certainly, freedom from defects, flexibility and robustness in the face of system evolution are important aspects of quality to many organizations.