Colin Tully

Non-technological issues in software engineering

A panel discussion is reported. Three nontechnological problems were selected which each serve to cluster several lower-level elements. First, the software engineering profession has not produced a cadre of capable/competent managers. Second, software development is largely practiced as an individual creative activity, rather than a team effort. Third, the software engineering community has not taken positive action to reduce the performance (e.g., productivity and quality) differences among individuals (or across teams). Much of the potential impact of technological advances may be blocked by these factors. The panelists offer a wealth of experience, insight, and international perspectives on these nontechnological issues. The panelists address both the problems and steps for their resolution.<<ETX>>

Introducing reuse in companies: a survey of European experiences

dealing with reuse. In detail the steps followed are the following. This paper presents the initial results of the Surprise project. Surprise is an EspritIEssi project. aimed at identifying key factors in adopting or running a company wide reuse program. Key factors are derived from empirical evidence of best reuse practices, as emerged from an extensive survey of recent European reuse projects: more than 20 reuse projects performed in Europe from 1994 to I997 were annlysed.

Comments on "More success and failure factors in software reuse"

For original paper see ibid., p. 474. This is a clear example of how research in software engineering can progress when empirical methods are applied. Menzies and Di Stefano apply a number of data mining tools to the data set. While, inmost cases, their results are in agreement with ours, in some cases they are not. Our first and main observation is that our interpretation of the data set is based not only on the data set itself but also on the knowledge gathered during the interviews with project members. The main problem with the data set is its size: 23 data points. Although this data set is the largest one available about reuse projects, it is too limited to base analysis only on data mining techniques; data mining is usually applied to data sets with thousands if not millions of data points.

Failure and success factors in reuse programs: a synthesis of industrial experiences

This tutorial presents the essential concepts of software reuse, and the key issues on how to introduce effectively reuse in companies producing software or systems. Large part of the tutorial is dedicated to present examples and lessons learnt from industrial projects. Failure factors are discussed as well as success factors. The tutorial is the result of the Esprit ESSI project n. 23960, SURPRISE, funded by the European Commission. SURPRISE (SURvey on the Possibilities of Reuse In Software Engineering) has deeply analyzed over 18 reuse projects performed in Europe from 1994 to 1997, in order to extract from them practical lessons on what to do, and what not to do, in order to introduce reuse into companies.

A survey of European reuse experiences: initial results

The paper presents the initial results of the Surprise project. Surprise is an Essi Dissemination action, aimed at identifying and disseminating key factors in adopting or running a company-wide software reuse program. Key factors are derived from empirical evidence of best reuse practices, as emerged from an extensive survey of recent European software reuse projects: around 18 reuse projects performed in Europe from 1994 to 1997 were analysed. A number of key issues that determine the software reuse policy have been identified: management, organisation, human aspects, processes, repository. For each of them, success and failure examples are analysed, main risks and success factors are detailed.