Software Reuse in Agile Development Organizations - A Conceptual Management Tool

The reuse of knowledge is considered a major factor for increasing productivity and quality. In the software industry knowledge is embodied in software assets such as code components, functional designs and test cases. This kind of knowledge reuse is also referred to as software reuse. Although the benefits can be substantial, software reuse has never reached its full potential. Organizations are not aware of the different levels of reuse or do not know how to address reuse issues. This paper proposes a conceptual management tool for supporting software reuse. Furthermore the paper presents the findings of the application of the management tool in an agile development organization

A Platform-based Design Approach for Flexible Software Components

We develop a design method that promotes flexible component design based on a common component platform with various plug-ins. The approach increases the flexibility and expandability of software components, which improves their reuse opportunities. We argue that such a flexible component design can expand reuse from relatively small infrastructure items, such as user interfaces, printing functionality, and data access modules, to the core of the application domain. Reusing such domain-specific items helps realize the true value of component-based software development. Following a design science research approach, we evaluated the component design method by assessing its correctness and its application to different scenarios. We also recruited a panel of experts to assess it