A case study of horizontal reuse in a project-driven organisation

Abstract

This experience paper presents observations, lessons learned, and recommendations based on a case study of reuse. The case study is concerned with the development, maturation, and reuse of a business domain independent software component (horizontal reuse) in a project-driven organisation that has little previous experience with systematic software reuse. The main lessons learned are that: even though domain analysis can alleviate reuse mismatch problems one should not underestimate the technical problems that may arise when reusing; a side-effect of reuse is that software engineering knowledge is transferred within an organisation; design patterns can be as risky as they can be beneficial; and there is more to architectural mismatch than "merely" packaging mismatch.