An Empirical Study on Software Reuse

Software reuse has been widely practiced in industries with or without clear identification of reuse. In order for reuse to occur, software developers must not only reuse good quality components, but must also contribute to reusable components that others can use. Reuse and design for reusability, need to be made part of the culture of software development organizations. This paper presents a reuse methodology over an empirical study on a few industrial projects in the same organization, to analyze how one project reused another. These projects have been successfully completed and the products are still exercised in the field. The study result was confirmed to be satisfactory by the development teams. The authors have also developed a tool that interactively guides the user in applying the proposed methodology.