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Reusable Software Development Essay

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The quality and reliability of software today is expected to be extremely high. Software is being included in engines of automobiles, robots, x-ray machines at hospitals; it is no surprise that software is expected to operate correctly almost all the time. This reliability comes at a cost of increasing complexity. With the increase in complexity, software development teams are getting larger and maintenance is becoming more difficult. Although developers are dealing with these problems project dates are still very rigorous and projects can seem impossible to complete on time. Due to these problems, software development costs are rising which is increasing the cost of software for consumers. Without new practices to develop software …show more content…

Reuse-base software development uses a similar methodology. By using what has already been created we can modify or improve it to make a better product then what has been previously developed. While software reuse may not alleviate all the problems the developer faces it can certainly help lower the demands put on the development team. Reuse-based software development requires a different methodology to create large robust systems that can be used again and again. A traditional software development methodology isn’t efficient enough to create reusable software. While smaller systems can be reused with relative ease, larger systems have a cost associated to developing them with reuse in mind. Project planning must include extra time for designing, implementing and testing these reusable assets as opposed to system-specific functionality. There also may be costs associated with training people on these new tools and assets that are required to be used with a reuse-base software methodology. Therefore, companies are usually reluctant in incorporating software reuse into their development cycle, but over the past 10 years there has been a gradual transition to reuse-based development. The move to reuse-based development is in response to companies seeing their software as a valuable asset and are promoting reuse to increase their return on software investments (Sommerville, 416). Using

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