Measurement of Functional Reuse

This position paper addresses the measurement of software reuse from a functional perspective rather than from a technical perspective. Many studies have observed that the potential for reuse in software goes far beyond the reuse of source lines of code and includes data, architecture , design, program and common subsystem modules, documentation, test data and various intangibles. These issues are not tackled by reuse metrics based only on lines of code as the unit of measurement. In 1995, Abran and Desharnais proposed the rst version of functional reuse metrics based on the Function Point Analysis (FPA) technique. They illustrated how these metrics could be used to take into account the beneets of reuse in a cost-beneet analysis. We are currently working on the reenement and extension of these functional reuse metrics. This empirical research project includes three phases: (1) test of the proposed functional metrics with other industrial datasets; (2) exploration of its limitations and potential extensions, through the design of much more complex simulated case studies using the data collected in the rst phase of the project; and (3) design and test of an improved version of the proposed metrics. In this position paper we will present our current work in progress on this subject.