Three empirical studies of a software reuse reference model

The contribution of this paper is a reference model for the practice of software reuse. Our research thesis is that software development based upon a software reuse reference model improves quality of products, productivity of processes and product time‐to‐market for many software development enterprises. The definition and investigation of such a model has been carried out using three steps. First, the reference model is developed based on existing software reuse concepts. Second, this reference model is empirically studied using both legacy studies and lessons learned studies. Third, the impact of the reference model on software development productivity, quality, and time‐to‐market is empirically derived. Copyright © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.