Metrics for software reuse

A major reengineering goal is software reuse. Effective reuse of knowledge, processes and products from previous software developments can reduce costs and increase both productivity and quality in software projects.This thesis extensively tests five projects produced by the graduate software engineering class at Ball State University. Each project has the same set of requirements.Each project is also analyzed based on subjective criteria, for example documentation, use of mnemonics for variable names and ease of understanding. Based on the outcome of testing and subjective analysis, reusable parts are identified.Metrics are collected on all of these projects. This thesis compares the metrics collected on the modules identified for reuse, and the same metrics collected on the non-reusable modules, to determine if there is a statistically significant difference in those metrics between the two groups. Metrics which are good predictors of reusable modules are identified.Metrics which are found to be good predictors of reusable modules include: number of in-parameters, number of data structure manipulations and central calls.Department of Computer ScienceThesis (M.S.