Chapter 16 – Software Reuse

Lecture 1

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Topics covered

 The reuse landscape

 Application frameworks
 Software product lines
 COTS product reuse

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Software reuse

 In most engineering disciplines, systems are

designed by composing existing components that
have been used in other systems.
 Software engineering has been more focused on
original development but it is now recognised that
to achieve better software, more quickly and at
lower cost, we need a design process that is
based on systematic software reuse.
 There has been a major switch to reuse-based
development over the past 10 years.
Reuse-based software engineering

 Application system reuse

 The whole of an application system may be reused either by
incorporating it without change into other systems (COTS reuse)
or by developing application families.
 Component reuse
 Components of an application from sub-systems to single objects
may be reused. Covered in Chapter 17.
 Object and function reuse
 Software components that implement a single well-defined object
or function may be reused.
Benefits of software reuse

Benefit Explanation
Increased dependability Reused software, which has been tried and tested in
working systems, should be more dependable than
new software. Its design and implementation faults
should have been found and fixed.
Reduced process risk The cost of existing software is already known,
whereas the costs of development are always a matter
of judgment. This is an important factor for project
management because it reduces the margin of error in
project cost estimation. This is particularly true when
relatively large software components such as
subsystems are reused.
Effective use of specialists Instead of doing the same work over and over again,
application specialists can develop reusable software
that encapsulates their knowledge.

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Benefits of software reuse

Benefit Explanation
Standards compliance Some standards, such as user interface standards, can
be implemented as a set of reusable components. For
example, if menus in a user interface are implemented
using reusable components, all applications present the
same menu formats to users. The use of standard user
interfaces improves dependability because users make
fewer mistakes when presented with a familiar interface.
Accelerated development Bringing a system to market as early as possible is often
more important than overall development costs. Reusing
software can speed up system production because both
development and validation time may be reduced.

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Problems with reuse

Problem Explanation
Increased maintenance If the source code of a reused software system or
costs component is not available then maintenance costs may be
higher because the reused elements of the system may
become increasingly incompatible with system changes.
Lack of tool support Some software tools do not support development with
reuse. It may be difficult or impossible to integrate these
tools with a component library system. The software
process assumed by these tools may not take reuse into
account. This is particularly true for tools that support
embedded systems engineering, less so for object-oriented
development tools.
Not-invented-here Some software engineers prefer to rewrite components
syndrome because they believe they can improve on them. This is
partly to do with trust and partly to do with the fact that
writing original software is seen as more challenging than
reusing other people’s software.

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Problems with reuse

Problem Explanation
Creating, maintaining, Populating a reusable component library and ensuring the
and using a component software developers can use this library can be expensive.
library Development processes have to be adapted to ensure that
the library is used.
Finding, understanding, Software components have to be discovered in a library,
and adapting reusable understood and, sometimes, adapted to work in a new
components environment. Engineers must be reasonably confident of
finding a component in the library before they include a
component search as part of their normal development
process.

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The reuse landscape

 Although reuse is often simply thought of as the

reuse of system components, there are many
different approaches to reuse that may be used.
 Reuse is possible at a range of levels from simple
functions to complete application systems.
 The reuse landscape covers the range of possible
reuse techniques.
The reuse landscape

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Approaches that support software reuse

Approach Description
Architectural patterns Standard software architectures that support common types
of application systems are used as the basis of applications.
Described in Chapters 6, 13, and 20.
Design patterns Generic abstractions that occur across applications are
represented as design patterns showing abstract and
concrete objects and interactions. Described in Chapter 7.
Component-based Systems are developed by integrating components
development (collections of objects) that conform to component-model
standards. Described in Chapter 17.
Application frameworks Collections of abstract and concrete classes are adapted and
extended to create application systems.
Legacy system wrapping Legacy systems (see Chapter 9) are ‘wrapped’ by defining a
set of interfaces and providing access to these legacy
systems through these interfaces.

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Approaches that support software reuse

Approach Description
Service-oriented systems Systems are developed by linking shared services, which
may be externally provided. Described in Chapter 19.
Software product lines An application type is generalized around a common
architecture so that it can be adapted for different customers.
COTS product reuse Systems are developed by configuring and integrating
existing application systems.
ERP systems Large-scale systems that encapsulate generic business
functionality and rules are configured for an organization.
Configurable vertical Generic systems are designed so that they can be configured
applications to the needs of specific system customers.

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Approaches that support software reuse

Approach Description
Program libraries Class and function libraries that implement commonly used
abstractions are available for reuse.
Model-driven engineering Software is represented as domain models and
implementation independent models and code is generated
from these models. Described in Chapter 5.
Program generators A generator system embeds knowledge of a type of
application and is used to generate systems in that domain
from a user-supplied system model.
Aspect-oriented software Shared components are woven into an application at different
development places when the program is compiled. Described in Chapter
21.

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Reuse planning factors

 The development schedule for the software.

 The expected software lifetime.
 The background, skills and experience of the
development team.
 The criticality of the software and its non-
functional requirements.
 The application domain.
 The execution platform for the software.
Application frameworks

 Frameworks are moderately large entities that can

be reused. They are somewhere between system
and component reuse.
 Frameworks are a sub-system design made up of
a collection of abstract and concrete classes and
the interfaces between them.
 The sub-system is implemented by adding
components to fill in parts of the design and by
instantiating the abstract classes in the
framework.
Framework classes

 System infrastructure frameworks

 Support the development of system infrastructures such
as communications, user interfaces and compilers.
 Middleware integration frameworks
 Standards and classes that support component
communication and information exchange.
 Enterprise application frameworks
 Support the development of specific types of application
such as telecommunications or financial systems.
Web application frameworks

 Support the construction of dynamic websites as a front-

end for web applications.
 WAFs are now available for all of the commonly used
web programming languages e.g. Java, Python, Ruby,
etc.
 Interaction model is based on the Model-View-Controller
composite pattern.

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Model-view controller

 System infrastructure framework for GUI design.

 Allows for multiple presentations of an object and
separate interactions with these presentations.
 MVC framework involves the instantiation of a
number of patterns (as discussed in Chapter 7).
The Model-View-Controller pattern

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WAF features

 Security
 WAFs may include classes to help implement user authentication (login) and
access.
 Dynamic web pages
 Classes are provided to help you define web page templates and to populate
these dynamically from the system database.
 Database support
 The framework may provide classes that provide an abstract interface to different
databases.
 Session management
 Classes to create and manage sessions (a number of interactions with the
system by a user) are usually part of a WAF.
 User interaction
 Most web frameworks now provide AJAX support (Holdener, 2008), which allows
more interactive web pages to be created.
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Extending frameworks

 Frameworks are generic and are extended to create

a more specific application or sub-system. They
provide a skeleton architecture for the system.
 Extending the framework involves
 Adding concrete classes that inherit operations from
abstract classes in the framework;
 Adding methods that are called in response to events
that are recognised by the framework.
 Problem with frameworks is their complexity which
means that it takes a long time to use them
effectively.
Inversion of control in frameworks

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Key points

 Most new business software systems are now developed by reusing

knowledge and code from previously implemented systems.
 There are many different ways to reuse software. These range from
the reuse of classes and methods in libraries to the reuse of
complete application systems.
 The advantages of software reuse are lower costs, faster software
development and lower risks. System dependability is increased.
Specialists can be used more effectively by concentrating their
expertise on the design of reusable components.
 Application frameworks are collections of concrete and abstract
objects that are designed for reuse through specialization and the
addition of new objects. They usually incorporate good design
practice through design patterns.

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Chapter 16 – Software Reuse

Lecture 2

Chapter 16 Software reuse 24

Software product lines

 Software product lines or application families are

applications with generic functionality that can be
adapted and configured for use in a specific
context.
 A software product line is a set of applications
with a common architecture and shared
components, with each application specialized to
reflect different requirements.
 Adaptation may involve:
 Component and system configuration;
 Adding new components to the system;
 Selecting from a library of existing components;
 Modifying components to meet new requirements.
Application frameworks and product lines

 Application frameworks rely on object-oriented features

such as polymorphism to implement extensions. Product
lines need not be object-oriented (e.g. embedded
software for a mobile phone)
 Application frameworks focus on providing technical
rather than domain-specific support. Product lines
embed domain and platform information.
 Product lines often control applications for equipment.
 Software product lines are made up of a family of
applications, usually owned by the same organization.

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Product line specialisation

 Platform specialization
 Different versions of the application are developed for
different platforms.
 Environment specialization
 Different versions of the application are created to
handle different operating environments e.g. different
types of communication equipment.
 Functional specialization
 Different versions of the application are created for
customers with different requirements.
 Process specialization
 Different versions of the application are created to
support different business processes.
Product line architectures

 Architectures must be structured in such a way to

separate different sub-systems and to allow them
to be modified.
 The architecture should also separate entities and
their descriptions and the higher levels in the
system access entities through descriptions rather
than directly.
The architecture of a resource allocation system

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The product line architecture of a vehicle
dIspatcher

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Vehicle dispatching

 A specialised resource management system where the

aim is to allocate resources (vehicles) to handle
incidents.
 Adaptations include:
 At the UI level, there are components for operator display
and communications;
 At the I/O management level, there are components that
handle authentication, reporting and route planning;
 At the resource management level, there are components
for vehicle location and despatch, managing vehicle status
and incident logging;
 The database includes equipment, vehicle and map
databases.
Product instance development

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Product instance development

 Elicit stakeholder requirements

 Use existing family member as a prototype
 Choose closest-fit family member
 Find the family member that best meets the
requirements
 Re-negotiate requirements
 Adapt requirements as necessary to capabilities of
the software
 Adapt existing system
 Develop new modules and make changes for family
member
 Deliver new family member
 Document key features for further member
development
Product line configuration

 Design time configuration

 The product line is adapted and changed according to
the requirements of particular customers. Design starts
off with generic system.
 Deployment time configuration
 The product line is configured by embedding knowledge
of the customer’s requirements and business processes.
The software source code itself is not changed. System
is designed for configuration by the customer or his
consultants.
Deployment-time configuration

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Levels of deployment time configuration

 1. Component selection, where you select the modules

in a system that provide the required functionality.
 2. Workflow and rule definition, where you define
workflows (how information is processed, stage-by-
stage) and validation rules that should apply to
information entered by users or generated by the
system.
 3. Parameter definition, where you specify the values of
specific system parameters that reflect the instance of
the application that you are creating

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COTS product reuse

 A commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) product is a software

system that can be adapted for different customers
without changing the source code of the system.
 COTS systems have generic features and so can be
used/reused in different environments.
 COTS products are adapted by using built-in
configuration mechanisms that allow the functionality of
the system to be tailored to specific customer needs.
 For example, in a hospital patient record system, separate input
forms and output reports might be defined for different types of
patient.

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Benefits of COTS reuse

 As with other types of reuse, more rapid deployment of a reliable

system may be possible.
 It is possible to see what functionality is provided by the applications
and so it is easier to judge whether or not they are likely to be
suitable.
 Some development risks are avoided by using existing software.
However, this approach has its own risks, as I discuss below.
 Businesses can focus on their core activity without having to devote
a lot of resources to IT systems development.
 As operating platforms evolve, technology updates may be
simplified as these are the responsibility of the COTS product
vendor rather than the customer.

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Problems of COTS reuse

 Requirements usually have to be adapted to reflect the

functionality and mode of operation of the COTS product.
 The COTS product may be based on assumptions that are
practically impossible to change.
 Choosing the right COTS system for an enterprise can be a
difficult process, especially as many COTS products are not
well documented.
 There may be a lack of local expertise to support systems
development.
 The COTS product vendor controls system support and
evolution.

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COTS-solution and COTS-integrated systems

COTS-solution systems COTS-integrated systems

Single product that provides the Several heterogeneous system products
functionality required by a customer are integrated to provide customized
functionality
Based around a generic solution and Flexible solutions may be developed for
standardized processes customer processes
Development focus is on system Development focus is on system integration
configuration
System vendor is responsible for System owner is responsible for
maintenance maintenance
System vendor provides the platform for the System owner provides the platform for the
system system

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COTS solution systems

 COTS-solution systems are generic application systems

that may be designed to support a particular business
type, business activity or, sometimes, a complete
business enterprise.
 For example, a COTS-solution system may be produced for
dentists that handles appointments, dental records, patient
recall, etc.
 Domain-specific COTS-solution systems, such as
systems to support a business function (e.g. document
management) provide functionality that is likely to be
required by a range of potential users.

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ERP systems

 An Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system is

a generic system that supports common business
processes such as ordering and invoicing,
manufacturing, etc.
 These are very widely used in large companies -
they represent probably the most common form of
software reuse.
 The generic core is adapted by including modules
and by incorporating knowledge of business
processes and rules.
The architecture of an ERP system

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ERP architecture

 A number of modules to support different business

functions.
 A defined set of business processes, associated with
each module, which relate to activities in that module.
 A common database that maintains information about all
related business functions.
 A set of business rules that apply to all data in the
database.

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ERP configuration

 Selecting the required functionality from the system.

 Establishing a data model that defines how the organization’s
data will be structured in the system database.
 Defining business rules that apply to that data.
 Defining the expected interactions with external systems.
 Designing the input forms and the output reports generated by
the system.
 Designing new business processes that conform to the
underlying process model supported by the system.
 Setting parameters that define how the system is deployed on
its underlying platform.
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COTS integrated systems

 COTS-integrated systems are applications that include

two or more COTS products and/or legacy application
systems.
 You may use this approach when there is no single
COTS system that meets all of your needs or when you
wish to integrate a new COTS product with systems that
you already use.

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Design choices

 Which COTS products offer the most appropriate

functionality?
 Typically, there will be several COTS products available, which
can be combined in different ways.
 How will data be exchanged?
 Different products normally use unique data structures and
formats. You have to write adaptors that convert from one
representation to another.
 What features of a product will actually be used?
 COTS products may include more functionality than you need
and functionality may be duplicated across different products.

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A COTS-integrated procurement system

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Service-oriented COTS interfaces

 COTS integration can be simplified if a service-oriented

approach is used.
 A service-oriented approach means allowing access to
the application system’s functionality through a standard
service interface, with a service for each discrete unit of
functionality.
 Some applications may offer a service interface but,
sometimes, this service interface has to be implemented
by the system integrator. You have to program a wrapper
that hides the application and provides externally visible
services.

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Application wrapping

Chapter 16 Software reuse 50

COTS system integration problems

 Lack of control over functionality and performance

 COTS systems may be less effective than they
appear
 Problems with COTS system inter-operability
 Different COTS systems may make different
assumptions that means integration is difficult
 No control over system evolution
 COTS vendors not system users control evolution
 Support from COTS vendors
 COTS vendors may not offer support over the
lifetime of the product
Key points

 Software product lines are related applications that are developed from a
common base. This generic system is adapted to meet specific
requirements for functionality, target platform or operational configuration.
 COTS product reuse is concerned with the reuse of large-scale, off-the-shelf
systems. These provide a lot of functionality and their reuse can radically
reduce costs and development time. Systems may be developed by
configuring a single, generic COTS product or by integrating two or more
COTS products.
 Enterprise Resource Planning systems are examples of large-scale COTS
reuse. You create an instance of an ERP system by configuring a generic
system with information about the customer’s business processes and rules.
 Potential problems with COTS-based reuse include lack of control over
functionality and performance, lack of control over system evolution, the
need for support from external vendors and difficulties in ensuring that
systems can inter-operate.

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