REARM: A Reuse-Based Economic Model for Software Reference Architectures

To remain competitive, organizations are challenged to make informed and feasible value-driven design decisions in order to ensure the quality of their software systems. However, there is a lack of support for evaluating the economic impact of these decisions with regard to software reference architectures. This damages the communication among architects and management, which can result in poor decisions. This paper aims at ameliorating this problem by presenting a pragmatic preliminary economic model to perform cost-benefit analysis on the adoption of software reference architectures as a key asset for optimizing architectural decision-making. The model is based on existing value-based metrics and economics-driven models used in other areas. A preliminary validation based on a retrospective study showed the ability of the model to support a cost-benefit analysis presented to the management of an IT consulting company. This validation involved a cost-benefit analysis related to reuse and maintenance; other qualities will be integrated as our research progresses.