1. Sukhpal Singh M.E. (S.E.) 801131024
REUSE CAPABILTY MODEL
Introduction:
The Software Productivity Consortium has developed a Reuse Capability Model (RCM) which can be
used by an organization to assess its own reuse capability and develop a plan for improving its
capability. An organization’s strategy for adopting a reuse technology should be based on a vision for
improving the organization’s way of doing business. In general, a capability model is a guide for
selecting improvement strategies by determining current capabilities and identifies the issues most
critical to improvement. The RCM is a self-assessment and planning aid for improving an
organization’s reuse capability which adheres to these concepts of technology adoption and
improvement. Due to situational factors, such as budget, schedule, the business environment, etc., an
organization’s actual reuse performance may not reflect its capability. Thus, these Factors should be
taken into consideration when selecting an improvement strategy. It is not necessarily true that the
proper business decision is to improve an organization’s reuse capability to the highest extent
possible-it may not be worth the investment in the given business environment. The Consortium’s
reuse adoption process applies the RCM with respect to an organization’s environment and in
conjunction with a reuse economics model to aid the organization in making an intelligent business
decision on how to practice reuse.
Need of RCM:
Software reuse is becoming a viable and widespread practice as evidenced by the cases documented.
However, many companies are not achieving their full potential for reuse, many have had
disappointing results from their reuse efforts, and many are still avoiding reuse altogether. The
problem arises when organizations approach reuse as an independent collection of tools and
techniques, or when an organization focuses on the technical issues of reuse without adequately
addressing the nontechnical issues. To improve the results an organization achieves through reuse
requires that the organization take comprehensive view of its process for software development and
address the technical and nontechnical issues within this context. Toshiba is an example of an
organization which did take a comprehensive view of its process. Toshiba’s success at systematizing
reuse to their integrated set of tools, techniques, management procedures, controls, incentives, and
training programs. Taking a comprehensive view of an organization’s process and addressing the
myriad issues critical to reuse can be an overwhelming task in the absence of any formal approach.
The reuse adoption process and the RCM together provide a degree of formality which can help an
organization address this problem. The RCM captures the issues critical to improving an
organization’s reuse capability. The reuse adoption process provides the means to apply the RCM-
taking into account the organization’s situation-to determine the most appropriate course of action.
How organizations will benefit from an RCM include: Potential benefits to organizations using the
RCM Improved performance from reuse (cost, schedule, quality, productivity, and return on
investment, customization, and competitiveness). The RCM identifies what can be accomplished to
improve these results. Lower risk of implementing a reuse program. The RCM supports evolutionary
approaches for advancing reuse capability.
Purpose, audience, and scope of the RCM:
The RCM is a self-assessment and planning aid for improving an organization’s reuse capability.
Obtaining better results through reuse is the aim of the RCM. The RCM is used within the reuse
adoption process to aid an organization in making an intelligent business decision on how to practice
reuse. The primary users of the RCM are companies who are developing/maintaining multiple
software systems, versions, and/or products for one or more customers. The model may be used by
organizations that have no reuse program and are planning to start one, as well as organizations that
have a reuse program in place and plan to improve their reuse capability. Specifically, the model is
applied by those individuals within an organization who are responsible for defining and
implementing the organization’s reuse program. Use of the model requires an organization to take a

2. Sukhpal Singh M.E. (S.E.) 801131024
comprehensive view of its process for software development with respect to reuse. The model is
applied across the levels of an organization from the product level, through the product line level, to
the business level. It is applied across the organization’s functional boundaries, such as management,
engineering, legal, marketing, research, etc. It also requires a company to look outside of its own
boundaries to its customers and suppliers.
Context for applying the RCM:
The RCM is applied within the reuse adoption process. The reuse adoption process is a process for
implementing a reuse program. The reuse adoption process is based on the implementation model.
The reuse adoption process includes the following activities:
Initiate Reuse Program Development: The purpose of this activity is to obtain commitment from a
sponsor to investigate reuse as a means for supporting organizational objectives. It includes the
identification of organizational objectives and reuse opportunities.
Define Reuse Program: The purpose of this activity is to scope and define the reuse program. It
includes the definition of objectives for the reuse program, assessing the current situation with respect
to reuse, setting reuse adoption goals, identification of constraints, and identification of alternative
reuse adoption strategies.
Analyse Reuse Adoption Strategies: The purpose of this activity is to refine, evaluate, and select a
reuse adoption strategy for implementing a reuse program. It includes the assessment of risks
associated with each alternative strategy.
Develop Reuse Action Plan: The purpose of this activity is to develop a plan for implementing a
reuse program based on the selected reuse adoption strategy. It includes the identification of the tasks,
resources, and schedule for implementing the reuse program.
Implement and Monitor Reuse Program: The purpose of this activity is to enact the reuse action
plan. It includes monitoring progress against the plan and making any necessary adjustments.
Components of the RCM:
To successfully adopt a new technology, the organization must understand its present state of practice,
be able to identify the desired state of practice, and develop a strategy that will successfully move the
organization toward the desired state. Many organizations today do not have a clear understanding of
the state of their reuse practice. It thus becomes very difficult to develop a strategy that would lead to
an improved reuse practice.
Reuse capability: Reuse capability refers to the range of reuse results an organization is able to
achieve through its process improving these results, and their range, is the purpose of the RCM. To
improve these results requires they be precisely defined. Thus, reuse capability is: The range of
elected results in reuse proficiency, efficiency, and effectiveness that can be achieved by an
organization’s process. Reuse proficiency and efficiency are defined in terms of reuse opportunities.
A reuse opportunity is an occasion where an asset may satisfy a need. A targeted reuse opportunity
may not always be a potential reuse opportunity.
Reuse proficiency: Reuse proficiency is the ratio of the value of actual reuse opportunities exploited
to the value of potential reuse opportunities. It may be represented as: RA/RP, where: RA = Total
value of the actual reuse opportunity- RP= Total value of the potential reuse opportunity.
Reuse efficiency: Reuse efficiency is the ratio of the actual reuse opportunities exploited to the
organization’s targeted reuse opportunities. The target may be implicitly or explicitly defined. Reuse
efficiency may be represented as: RA/RT, where: RT = Total value of the targeted opportunities.

3. Sukhpal Singh M.E. (S.E.) 801131024
Figure 1 present’s two possible cases: one resulting in a low reuse capability, the other in a high reuse
capability. The low reuse capability case is characteristic of an ad hoc approach to reuse where the
potential opportunities are not identified .Since the potential opportunities are not known, the target
opportunities will likely fall outside the potential opportunities. The target opportunities may also not
be explicitly defined, but represent the sum of the opportunities pursued by individuals. When the
target opportunities fall outside the potential opportunities, the actual reuse is constrained to the
intersection. The end result is a low reuse efficiency and proficiency. The reuse effectiveness’s also
likely to below since effort is expended on opportunities which do not result in actual reuse. The
second case is characteristic of systematic reuse where the organization identifies its potential
opportunities, ensures the target set of opportunities falls within the potential, and has a process which
ensures the target is met. The target may not contain the entire set of entail opportunities because the
potential benefit g m those opportunities outside the target may not be worth the additional reuse
investment; i.e., the target is focused on the opportunities with the highest payoff.
Assessment model:
The assessment model is a mechanism to be used by an organization to gain an understanding of its
current reuse capability and to identify potential opportunities for improving its capability. However,
it is not sufficient to develop a plan based on reuse capability alone-other factors, such as
organizational goals, budget, schedule, domain suitability, etc., vary with the situation and should be
taken into consideration.
A) Critical success factors: The assessment model consists of a set of critical success factors which
correspond to issues most critical to improving reuse capability. For instance, one factor critical to
improving reuse proficiency is needs identification. For an asset to be reused it must satisfy a need;
thus, an organization should identify these needs and use them as a basis to acquire/develop reusable
assets. This will help improve the organization's reuse proficiency by focusing its efforts where there
are needs to be filled. Another factor, planning and direction, is critical to improving reuse efficiency.
That is, to successfully exploit targeted reuse opportunities the organization can develop a strategy for
exploiting those opportunities and direct its activities in accordance with the strategy.

4. Sukhpal Singh M.E. (S.E.) 801131024
B) Critical success factor goals: Each of the critical success factors are defined in terms of one or
more goals. The goals indented the results to be achieved to satisfy a critical success factor. There are
many ways to perform reuse and new ways will continue to be developed. Thus, the critical success
factor goals focus on “what” is to be accomplished rather than “how” it is to be accomplished to
provide the needed flexibility. For example, goals for the needs identification factor state:
1. Current developer needs for solutions are identified.
2. Anticipated developer needs for solutions are identified.
3. Current customer needs for solutions are identified.
4. Anticipated customer needs for solutions are identified.
5. Identified needs are used as a basis for acquiring.
Implementation model:
Establishing improvement goals and developing strategies to meet those goals can be a very complex
task when taking into account the wide spectrum of information generated from the assessment. The
implementation model helps reduce this complexity prioritizing the goals associated with the critical
success Factors and partitioning the goals into stages. The stages represent possible operational steady
states in an organization’s reuse practice, and successive stages build on practices established at
earlier stages. The set of implementation stages will vary depending on the scheme used to prioritize
and partition the goals. There are multiple paths to success and there is no one best path for all
organizations. Thus, there can be multiple implementation models. This first implementation model is
designed to be applicable to a broad audience. It is based on a risk-reduction growth scheme, i.e., the
goals are prioritized in a manner which reduces the probability of failure and minimizes the
consequence of failure. An implementation model based on a risk-reduction growth scheme has a
number of advantages. It increases an organization’s probability of success in implementing reuse. It
allows for an earlier return on investment. It encourages organizations to try reuse, and it enables
them to evolve their reuse practice. A two-step process was used to develop an implementation model.
In the first step, a dependency graph of the critical success factor goals was constructed. The
dependency graph identifies which goals are sequentially dependent and which goals are mutually
dependent. In the second step, the goal was partitioned into stages. The goals were partitioned into
stages such that the dependencies identified in the dependency rap were not violated; goals which
would require significant changes to an organization’s way of doing business were distributed as
evenly as possible across the stages and a stage constituted a possible steady state.
a) Implementation model stages: There are four stages in the risk-reduction growth implementation
model: opportunistic, integrated, leveraged, and anticipating.

5. Sukhpal Singh M.E. (S.E.) 801131024
Opportunistic: Individual projects develop a reuses rate . The project staffs support the reuse strategy
and resources are committed to enact the strategy. Reuse activities are defined in the project’s
software plan. Specialized reuse tools, automated or non-automated, are used where advantageous to
support the defined reuse activities.
Integrated: A standard reuse process is defined and integrated with the organization’s standard
software development process. The organization’s structure, policies, procedures, etc., support the
standard process. Tools are tailored to support the standard process. The management and staff are
actively involved in defining and implementing the standard process. Anticipated developer needs are
identified and used as a basis for acquiring or developing reusable assets.
Leveraged: A product line reuse strategy is developed to maximize the benefits of reuse over sets of
related products, and product pricing and funding strategies take into account the expected costs and
benefits over the product line. Performance of the standard reuse process is measured and analysed to
identify weaknesses, and plans are established to address the weaknesses. Reuse tools are integrated
with the software development environment. Current customer needs are identified and used as a basis
for acquiring or developing reusable assets.
Anticipating: Management creates new business opportunities which take advantage of the
organization’s reuse capability and reusable assets. High payoff assets are identified. Customers’
needs are anticipated and used as a basis to acquire/develop reusable assets to meet those needs. New
technologies are identified which will meet or drive customer needs and are inserted into the
organization’s product lines.
Using the implementation model:
The implementation model would likely be used by the same group that conducted the assessment.
The people should have sufficient authority to develop a plan or implementing reuse in its
organization. The group uses the implementation model to assist them in establishing achievable reuse
adoption goals and evaluating alternative reuse adoption strategies To use the implementation model
the group first maps the results of the assessment which goals were ion model-this step is mechanical
since the stages represent a partition of the goals in the assessment model. The result is a profile of
which goals at which stages are satisfied hot satisfied. It is possible there will be a mix of
satisfied/unsatisfied goals at each stage. The correct way to interpret this result is that to reduce risk
the organization should give greater emphasis to meeting unsatisfied goals in early stages over
unsatisfied goals in later stages-it does not mean that they must meet earlier stage goals before later
stage goals. Once reuse adoption goals are established, the group generates alternative reuse adoption
strategies. Then the reuse adoption goals are used to evaluate the strategies. The implementation
models not used directly in generating alternative strategies.