9320180 Henry Software reuse is the key to increasing productivity within the software development process. By reusing existing software, time and effort are saved in the testing and maintenance phases of a software product. The goals of this research involve the measurement of reusability of software in the object oriented paradigm and the investigation how the process of reuse fits into the overall software development lifecycle. The effects of reuse on software development are also being accessed. In particular, what costs are involved in retraining programmers to think about reuse, to learn the object oriented paradigm, and to know what reusable routines are available and how to use them. Specifically, the goals of this research are: (1) to quantitatively measure object oriented designs and relate them to aspects of the final code (complexity, reusability, readability); (2) to identify the measurable qualities of reusable software (costs, benefits); (3) to correlate various aspects of reusability with programmer characteristics; (4) to measure the effects of reusing software on the process of software development (design, coding, integration, testing, maintenance). These goals are sought through an empirical study conducted in a controlled academic environment. After analysis and refinement of the new suite of metrics, final validation would involve one or more software vendors in another study usilg production software systems and maintenance data. ***
