Right context, software reuse promises high value to businesses that
develop software, opening the door to radical improvements in their
software capability (productivity, cost, time to market). Attempts to
adopt reuse without a sound understanding of the range of issues
involved, however, can lead to expensive failure. This book is for those
who are wondering whether they should adopt reuse and how, and also to
those who have already started to adopt it but are wondering where they
may be going wrong and how they could do better. It consistently
emphasizes the practical issues that influence success or failure in
reuse; and it offers a concise and balanced coverage of the essentials
of the subject, rather than going into undue depth or detail on some
topics at the expense of others. It occupies the central ground between
being on the one hand an academic textbook and on the other hand a
cookbook with ready-made recipes for exactly "how to do it". The authors
have drawn on their extensive experience of reuse and of software
process improvement to provide a readable and balanced coverage of the
subject. This book is suitable for business executives, software
managers and software developers, regardless of whatever kind of
software or applications are developed by their organisations, and
whatever the size of those organisations. A special feature of the book
is the frequent use of experience notes, drawn from the real-life
experience of organisations that have embarked on the reuse adventure.