An Analysis of Error in a Reuse-Oriented Development Environment

Abstract

Component reuse is widely considered vital for obtaining significant improvement in development productivity. However, as an organization adopts a reuse-oriented development process,the nature of the problems in development is likely to change. In this paper, we use a measurement--based approach to better understand and evaluate an evolving reuse process. More specifically, we study the effects of reuse across seven projects in narrow domain from a single development organization. An analysis of the errors that occur in new and reused components across all phases of system development provides insight into the factors influencing the reuse process. We found significant differences between errors associated with new and various types of reused components in terms of the types of errors committed, when errors are introduced, and the effect that the errors have on the development process. (Also cross-referenced as UMIACS-TR-95-24)