Reuse strategies in software development: an empirical study

We report on a study of reuse strategies, as employed in performing component-based software design, that we have conducted using the Unix environment. A number of subjects were asked to develop shell scripts that would perform a set of tasks, using a design support tool that was intended to provide support for reuse of Unix processes by providing a number of recognised searching strategies to assist with identifying suitable components. We review some of the methodological problems that were posed by the study, and we also conclude that for the inexperienced subjects the early identification of reusable elements was the most consistently successful strategy to adopt.