This research models the effects of software reuse on object-oriented software
development, in particular, the reuse of C++ classes. Two types of reuse (with and
without modification) are compared. The common traits of programmers who tend to
reuse are identified, and some object-oriented software metrics are correlated with the
inherent reusability of a C++ class. These issues are important because software reuse has
been shown to increase productivity within the software development process.
This research effort describes three experiments. The first characterizes the effects of
reusing C++ classes on object-oriented software development using nine development
process indicators. The second experiment uses ten similar process indicators to
differentiate the effects of writing C++ classes from scratch versus reusing them without
modification versus inheriting new classes from existing ones. The last experiment
correlates some object-oriented metrics with the expert opinions of the reusability of C++
classes.
This research has shown that the black box reuse (reuse without modification) of C++
classes is beneficial to object-oriented software development in many ways. Development
time is reduced and system reliability increases. For abstract data type C++ classes, a set
of fifteen skills and experiences are shown to be prominent in frequent class reusers.
Lastly, a set of object-oriented metrics is used to predict C++ class reusability. All of
these results can be used to increase programmer productivity when developing C++
software systems.
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