Use of Faceted Classification for Software Reuse

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Use of Faceted Classification for Software Reuse

• Presented by
• G.Padmavathy
• Trainee (2002-2004)

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Contents

• What is software reuse?
• Levels of reuse.
• Stages in reuse.
• Reuse process.
• Criteria for classification scheme for code
  reuse.
• Study at DTE Data Services.
• Conclusion

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What is Software Reuse?

• Reuse is the use of previously acquired
  concepts and objects in a new situation. In other
  words, it is a matching process between new and
  old situations. When the matching succeeds, the
  same actions are duplicated.

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Levels of Reuse

• There are two levels of reuse
• Reuse of ideas and knowledge
• Reuse of components and artifacts

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Stages in Reuse

• Code reuse involves three basic steps
• Accessing the code
• Understanding the code
• Adapting the code

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Reuse Process

• Start
• Search library
• If identical match
• Then
• End
• Else
• Collect similar components
• For each component
• Compute degree of match
• End
• Rank and select best component
• Modify component
• Fi
• End

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Criteria for Classification Scheme for Code Reuse

• It must
• Accommodate continually expanding collections.
• Support finding components that are similar, not
  just exact matches.
• Support finding functionally equivalent
  components across domains.
• Be very precise and have high descriptive power.
• Be easy to maintain ( add, delete, update without
  need to reclassify)
• Be usable by both the librarian and the end-user.
  
• Be amenable to automation.

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Faceted classification meets these criteria

• The faceted lists can be updated by adding new
  terms.
• The synthetic approach to classification ensures
  precision and descriptive power.
• A consistent list of terms for each facet
  provides a standard vocabulary.
• Its tabular format makes it easy to implement as
  a relational database.

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Study at DTE Data Services

• Asset Management Program (AMP) launched in 1986.
• Purpose of AMP was to create, maintain and make
  available a collection of reusable assets.
• Used a faceted classification scheme along with a
  superimposed conceptual graph structure and a
  thesaurus.

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Example of Faceted Scheme
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Example of Thesaurus
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Example of a Conceptual Graph
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Findings of the study

• Faceted classification helped to improve search
  and retrieval of components.
• It also led to a better understanding of the
  domain.
• Deriving a structured vocabulary in the form of
  facets also acted as a key to learning about the
  relations among each other.
• Faceted schemes are more effective for
  domain-specific collections.
• Several domain-specific faceted schemes are more
  effective than a single universal collection.

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Conclusion

• Library based software reuse using a faceted
  scheme makes a substantial impact on the
  organization.
• The manual nature of the classification is a
  limiting factor as software code collection grows
  faster.

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References

• Preito-Diaz, Ruben and Freeman, Peter
  Classifying Software for Reusability.
• Preito-Diaz, Ruben Implementing Faceted
  Classification for Software Reuse.

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Thank You