Viewing maintenance as reuse-oriented software development

The author presents a high-level organizational paradigm for development and maintenance in which an organization can learn from development and maintenance tasks and then apply that paradigm to several maintenance process models. Associated with the paradigm is a mechanism for setting measurable goals, making it possible to evaluate the process and the product and learn from experience. He discusses three maintenance models: the quick-fix, the iterative-enhancement, and the full-reuse model. He establishes a framework for classifying reusable objects and selecting a model. He offers a scheme that categorizes three aspects of reuse: the reusable object, the reusable object's context, and the process of transforming that object. The author then discusses what he terms reuse enablers: an improvement paradigm that helps organizations evaluate, learn, and enhance their software processes and products; a reuse-oriented evolution environment that encourages and supports reuse; and automated support for the paradigm and environment as well as for measurement and evaluation.<
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