A Social-Technical Approach to the Evolutionary Construction of Reusable Software Component Repositories

University Of Colorado At Boulder, Boulder CO

Investigators

Abstract

ABSTRACT SEL - 0204277 Gerhard Fischer U of Colorad @ Boulder Title: A Social-Technical Approach to the Evolutionary Construction of Reusable Software Component Repositories PIs: Gerhard Fischer and Yunwen Ye Although software reuse improves both the quality and productivity of software development, systematic reuse has not yet met its expected success due to difficulties in creating and maintaining reuse repositories and enabling software developers to build new systems with components from the reuse repository. The two issues are in a deadlock: if software developers are unable to reuse, the investments on reuse cannot be justified; if companies are unwilling to invest in reuse, software developers have little to reuse. This project takes a social-technical approach to address both issues. It will develop reuse-conducive environments based on the Seeding, Evolutionary Growth, and Reseeding (SER) model to guide thedevelopment and evolution of reuse repositories. It will instantiate the conceptual framework for reuse by creating a set of tools to support each phase of the SER model: SEEDER, BROKER, ENHANCER, and RESEEDER. This research will create a new understanding of the social, cognitive, and technical issues in software reuse, and explore new approaches and develop innovative tools to support reuse. The results of the research will make a significant impact on the design of information repository systems and human-centered software development environments.