A process framework for the systematic evaluation and diffusion of reuse methods

Many organisations are currently looking towards large-scale, systematic software reuse as a means of improving the software development process, and this is reflected in the increasing number of reuse methods being proposed in the literature. One problem area that has received little attention, however, is the evaluation of reuse methods within an organisation. Reuse has long been regarded as a complex organisational as well as technical endeavour, where the management of expectations must be considered an integral part of the evaluation process. This paper proposes a generic process for evaluating reuse methods, aimed primarily at practitioners performing reuse adoption within an organisation. The process we propose is based on experiences from three industrial reuse technology transfer projects and is a cyclic process comprised of three key phases, namely planning, acting and reviewing. The paper examines the tasks within each phase and the questions that each task addresses, and gives methodological guidance on carrying out each task. We conclude that human subjectivity is unlikely to be completely removed from reuse evaluations. However, a structured evaluation process can help organisations foster an analytical and diagnostic approach to reuse evaluation.