Knowledge Management Framework for Software Reuse

In the world of software development, reuse is an important, yet highly underutilized concept. The prospects of saving time, efforts and costs are very high with software reuse. However, the practical issues and challenges imposed are difficult to manage in ways that help optimize the reuse process and reap the benefits. Many papers discussing "knowledge" are focusing on using tools to manage it only on a business prospective. Big companies like AT&T, Wal-Mart, and American Airlines implemented some form of a knowledgebase in past years, yet they are still working on it. They aim to build a complex systems, called Data Warehouse, to aggregate in one 'place' all possible pieces of data and information regarding their business. Apparently the ability to query such systems, gave them the possibility to improve their business, in terms of cost reduction, customers fidelity and appreciation and so on. With such methodology in mind, we are proposing to store the technical knowledge gathered from different software development projects in a specialized knowledgebase to give high tech and software development companies the same benefits. In this paper we propose a methodology to store, organize and manage knowledge to support reuse in a technical field. The framework proposed is a proof of concept to investigate the relevant techniques and possible methods to design such framework. The main issues and components are discussed, however, we have not implemented the full framework at this stage.