Companies adopt various software reuse practices to achieve more benefits. Existing secondary studies aggregated primary evidence on software reuse benefits more than the costs. It is important to know how the software reuse costs and benefits are measured and the strength of the evidence. This study aims to conduct a systematic literature review to identify the observed software reuse costs and benefits from industrial cases and investigate how the identified software reuse costs and benefits are measured. In addition, we also assess the quality of the included primary studies to understand the strength of evidence behind the identified software reuse costs and benefits. We included 30 primary studies on software reuse costs and benefits in industrial cases using a mixed search strategy - automated search and snowballing. We identified nine software reuse benefits, six software reuse costs, and the metrics used to measure them. Better quality and improved productivity are the most investigated software reuse benefits, and most primary studies that report these two benefits are of good or moderate quality. Few primary studies reported software reuse costs, and most of them are of low quality. Generally, the quality of primary studies reporting software reuse benefits is better than those reporting software reuse costs.

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.

Contemporary practices such as InnerSource and DevOps promote software reuse. This study investigates the implications of using contemporary practices on software reuse. In particular, we investigate the costs, benefits, challenges, and potential improvements in contemporary reuse at Ericsson. We performed the study in two phases: a) the initial data collection based on a combination of data collection methods (e.g., interviews, discussions, company portals), and b) a follow-up group discussion after a year to understand the status of the challenges and improvements identified in the first phase. Our results indicate that developing reusable assets resulted in upfront costs, such as additional effort in ensuring compliance. Furthermore, development with reuse also resulted in additional effort, for example, in integrating and understanding reusable assets. Ericsson perceived the additional effort as an investment resulting in long-term benefits such as improved quality, productivity, customer experience, and way of working. Ericsson's main challenge was increased pressure on the producers of reusable assets, which was mitigated by scaling the InnerSource adoption. InnerSource success is evident from the increase in the contributions to reusable assets. In addition, Ericsson implemented measures such as automating the compliance check, which enhanced the maturity of reusable assets and resulted in increased reuse.  

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.