Software Reuse

Riuso del Software

Nonostante il suo aspetto high-tech, lo sviluppo software è a volte considerato "l'ultimo artigianato".

In contrast to building construction or electronics, where systems are built up of pre-fabricated and standardised components, software developers still design and implement many small and basic components at the beginning of each project.

Below some of the potential benefits of increased reuse are listed:

Reduced development costs: today most programmers are reinventing something that has been invented many times before.
Shorter lead times - "time-to-market"
Higher quality, since reused components have been used and debugged in several other systems.

Reuse should not only encompass code (functions, programs etc) but also design solutions, test work etc.

Important software engineering tools for reuse are modularity, hierarchies and encapsulation.

However, reuse is not acheived through software engineering alone; it also requires a great deal of product planning and business considerations, such as cost-benefit analysis.

Reuse is sometimes mistaken for a goal in itself, instead of a means for achieving higher quality, reduced development costs etc.