Aligning the economic modeling of software reuse with reuse practices

In contrast to current practices where software reuse is applied recursively and reusable assets are tailored trough parameterization or specialization, existing reuse economic models assume that (i) the cost of reusing a software asset depends on its size and (ii) reusable assets are developed from scratch. The contribution of this paper is that it provides modeling elements and an economic model that is better aligned with current practices. The functioning of the model is illustrated in an example. The example also shows how the model can support practitioners in deciding whether it is economically feasible to apply software reuse recursively. 2007 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.