Rapid Development: Taming Wild Software Schedules

The Bottom Line on Reuse

The bottom line on Opportunistic Reuse varies considerably, depending on how big the reuse opportunity is. Small amounts of Opportunistic Reuse will produce small savings. Large amounts of reuse could probably produce effort savings in the range of from 20 to 25 percent over the life of an entire project, assuming that large amounts of code and design can be reused and that there is some staff continuity between the new program and the one being salvaged.

Planned Reuse is not a short-term practice, but the long-term payoff makes it an appealing strategy. In one study of software process improvement in 13 organizations, some organizations demonstrated much greater productivity gains than others (Herbsleb et al. 1994). One ...