A Framework for Improving Software Reusability within Quality Constraints.(Dept.E)

Abstract

In this paper seven of the most important issues in software systems development have been investigated. These issues address two aspects, namely: software development productivity and the final overall quality. For the productivity aspect, an approach has been devised relying on using scripts. Built as a result of an analyst-user collaboration, these scripts, upon interpretation, transform given user requirements into code. This prototyping approach, in addition to being rapid, involves the user in order to ensure his overall satisfaction with the final product. For the quality aspect, a two-layered repository of thoroughly tested and verified reusable software components has been built. The first layer contains the kernels to interpret the scripts. This is independent of the physical implementation of the functional components in the second layer. Using the repository, the care data manipulations of virtually any application can be automatically generated. Five applications covering five different domains have been designed and implemented to investigate the merits of the above described framework.