HP Domain Analysis: Producing Useful Models for Reusable Software

software reuse efforts focused on libraries of general-purpose routines or functions. These fine-grained assets did not produce the hoped-for quality and productivity improvements. Recent software reuse efforts have shown that architecture-based, domain-specific reuse can yield greater quality and productivity improvements. by Patricia Collins Cornwell A software domain is a set of systems or applications that share some common functionality. This common functionality is typically embodied in various software components. * Domain analysis is a software engineering process that produces a characterization of a software domain to support the reuse of the software components. The HP domain analysis method produces a set of models that guide the design of reusable software. While a few papers and books have been published on aspects of domain analysis,1,2,3,4,5 very little has been published on practical domain analysis methods. HP has developed and refined a practical domain analysis method which has been used in several reuse projects. The method has proven to be an effective and efficient way to get the information needed for the design of domain-specific software. The focus of each domain analysis is guided by the business priorities and anticipate