A Metrics-based Framework for Measuring the Reusability of Object-Oriented Software Components

Abstract

The critical role played by software in socioeconomic advancement, has seen a rapid demand for software; creating a large backlog in affordable and quality software that needs to be written.  Although software reuse is capable of addressing this issue, effective reuse is seldom to come by, thus the issue still remains unresolved. In order to achieve effective reuse, practitioners need to focus on reusability: the property that makes software reusable. Although Object Oriented Software Development (OOSD) approach is capable of improving software reusability, a way of ascertaining if the required degree of reusability is being achieved during the OOSD process is required. This can be achieved through measurement. The task involved in measuring reusability of Object oriented (OO) software is to; determine major reusability attributes of reusable components, relate these characteristics with factors that influence them, link each factor with measurable OO design features that determines them, relate each feature with appropriate metrics, and find out how these metrics collectively determine the reusability of components. A novel framework for achieving this task is proposed in this paper.

Keywords: Software reuse, Software Reusability, Software Metrics, Software Component