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Using InnerSource for Improving Internal Reuse: An Industrial Case Study
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: 0000-0002-8132-0107
Blekinge Institute of Technology, Faculty of Computing, Department of Software Engineering.ORCID iD: 0000-0002-6215-1774
2023 (English)In: ACM International Conference Proceeding Series, Association for Computing Machinery (ACM), 2023, p. 348-357Conference paper, Published paper (Refereed)
Abstract [en]

Background: InnerSource consists of the use of open source development techniques within the corporation. It helps improve software reuse through increased transparency and inter-team collaboration. Companies need to understand their context and specific needs before deciding to adopt any specific InnerSource practices since they cannot apply all InnerSource practices at once. Aim: This study aims to support the case company in assessing its readiness for adopting InnerSource practices to improve its internal reuse, identify and prioritize the improvement areas, and identify suitable solutions. Method: We performed a case study using a questionnaire and a workshop to check the current and desired status of adopting InnerSource practices and collect potential solutions. Results: The study participants identified that the company needs to prioritize the improvements related to the discoverability, communication channels, and ownership of the reusable assets. In addition, they identified certain InnerSource practices as solutions for the prioritized improvement areas, such as better structured repositories for storing and searching the reusable assets and standardized documentation of the reusable assets. Conclusion: The questionnaire instrument aids the case company in identifying the improvement areas related to InnerSource and reuse practices. InnerSource practices could improve the development and maintenance of reusable assets. Keywords: InnerSource, software reuse, readiness © 2023 Owner/Author.

Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
Association for Computing Machinery (ACM), 2023. p. 348-357
Keywords [en]
Inner Source, Readiness, Software reuse, Open source software, Open systems, Development technique, Industrial case study, Open source development, Reusable assets, Reuse, Software-reuse, Suitable solutions, Team collaboration, Computer software reusability
National Category
Software Engineering
Identifiers
URN: urn:nbn:se:bth-25059DOI: 10.1145/3593434.3593466ISI: 001112128800051Scopus ID: 2-s2.0-85162238531ISBN: 9798400700446 (print)OAI: oai:DiVA.org:bth-25059DiVA, id: diva2:1777791
Conference
27th International Conference on Evaluation and Assessment in Software Engineering, EASE 2023, Oulu, 14 June 2023 through 16 June 2023
Part of project
OSIR- Open Source Inspired Reuse, Knowledge Foundation
Funder
Knowledge Foundation, 20190081Available from: 2023-06-30 Created: 2023-06-30 Last updated: 2024-01-12Bibliographically 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, XingruUsman, MuhammadBadampudi, Deepika

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