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Reuse in Contemporary Software Engineering Practices - An Exploratory Case Study in A Medium-sized Company
Blekinge Institute of Technology, Faculty of Computing, Department of Software Engineering.ORCID iD: 0000-0003-1181-9049
Blekinge Institute of Technology, Faculty of Computing, Department of Software Engineering.ORCID iD: 0000-0002-6215-1774
Blekinge Institute of Technology, Faculty of Computing, Department of Software Engineering.ORCID iD: 0000-0002-8132-0107
2022 (English)In: e-Informatica Software Engineering Journal, ISSN 1897-7979, E-ISSN 2084-4840, Vol. 16, no 1, article id 220110Article in journal (Refereed) Published
Abstract [en]

Background: Software practice is evolving with changing technologies and practices such as InnerSource, DevOps, and microservices. It is important to investigate the impact of contemporary software engineering (SE) practices on software reuse.Aim: This study aims to characterize software reuse in contemporary SE practices and investigate its implications in terms of costs, benefits, challenges, and potential improvements in a medium-sized company.Method: We performed an exploratory case study by conducting interviews, group discussions, and reviewing company documentation to investigate software reuse in the context of contemporary SE practices in the case company.Results: The results indicate that the development for reuse in contemporary SE practices incurs additional coordination, among other costs. Development with reuse led to relatively fewer additional costs and resulted in several benefits such as better product quality and less development and delivery time. Ownership of reusable assets is challenging in contemporary SE practice. InnerSource practices may help mitigate the top perceived challenges: discoverability and ownership of the reusable assets, knowledge sharing and reuse measurement.Conclusion: Reuse in contemporary SE practices is not without additional costs and challenges. However, the practitioners perceive costs as investments that benefit the company in the long run.

Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
Wroclaw University of Technology, 2022. Vol. 16, no 1, article id 220110
Keywords [en]
software reuse, contemporary SE practices, software reuse costs and benefits, software reuse challenges and improvements, InnerSource
National Category
Software Engineering
Identifiers
URN: urn:nbn:se:bth-23662DOI: 10.37190/e-Inf220110ISI: 000850816000001Scopus ID: 2-s2.0-85140768762OAI: oai:DiVA.org:bth-23662DiVA, id: diva2:1696267
Part of project
OSIR- Open Source Inspired Reuse, Knowledge Foundation
Funder
Knowledge Foundation, 20190081
Note

open access

Available from: 2022-09-16 Created: 2022-09-16 Last updated: 2023-09-18Bibliographically approved
In thesis
1. Improving Internal Software Reuse in the Context of Contemporary Software Engineering Practices
Open this publication in new window or tab >>Improving Internal Software Reuse in the Context of Contemporary Software Engineering Practices
2023 (English)Licentiate thesis, comprehensive summary (Other academic)
Abstract [en]

Context: Companies adopt many software reuse practices, such as software product line, reuse verbatim, and systematic reuse, to improve their internal software development and maximize the benefits. Contemporary software engineering (SE) practices, such as microservices and InnerSource, influence internal software reuse.

Objective: In this thesis, we aim to improve internal software reuse in the context of contemporary SE practices. To do that, we want to 1) understand the state-of-the-art and the state-of-the-practice of software reuse costs and benefits and the challenges that companies are currently facing and 2) identify interventions to improve internal software reuse. 

Methods: We conducted a systematic literature review to understand the state-of-the-art of software reuse costs and benefits. We performed two exploratory case studies to understand the state-of-the-practice of software reuse costs and benefits, challenges, and improvement areas in the context of contemporary SE practices.  We performed another follow-up improving case study to investigate the medium-sized case company's readiness of adopting InnerSource for software reuse.

Results: Existing literature reported more software reuse benefits than costs. The most reported software reuse benefits are better product quality and improved productivity. Verbatim reuse and systematic reuse result in more reuse benefits. Most of the included primary studies are of moderate quality, with only four having high quality. Practitioners think that software reuse costs in developing reusable assets will be paid off when developers start to reuse them. Challenges in software reuse in the context of contemporary SE practices differ between medium-sized and large-sized companies. Both of the companies perceive that InnerSource can help improve internal software reuse. Asking practitioners about both current and desired InnerSource reuse status helps identify the needed InnerSource improvements, thus helping companies succeed in adopting InnerSource for reuse.  

Conclusion: Both existing literature and our two case studies investigating software reuse in the context of contemporary SE practices showed that software reuse improves quality and productivity and has costs in developing and integrating reusable assets. However, the overall benefits outweigh the costs. Both case companies faced challenges in improving their internal reuse, where the most common challenges were about developing and maintaining reusable assets. The results showed that InnerSource helps develop and maintain reusable assets and further improves internal software reuse.

Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
Karlskrona: Blekinge Tekniska Högskola, 2023. p. 215
Series
Blekinge Institute of Technology Licentiate Dissertation Series, ISSN 1650-2140 ; 2023:09
Keywords
Software reuse, Costs and benefits, Contemporary software engineering practices
National Category
Software Engineering
Research subject
Software Engineering
Identifiers
urn:nbn:se:bth-25303 (URN)978-91-7295-468-7 (ISBN)
Presentation
2023-10-25, J1630, Valhallavägen 1, 371 41, Karlskrona, 13:00 (English)
Opponent
Supervisors
Funder
Knowledge Foundation, 20190081
Note

Chapters 2 and 4 are papers submitted to journals and therefore removed from the fulltext file.

Available from: 2023-09-18 Created: 2023-09-18 Last updated: 2023-11-30Bibliographically approved

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Chen, XingruBadampudi, DeepikaUsman, Muhammad

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