The following are some of the basic issues that must be clearly understood for starting any reuse program. • Component creation
• Component indexing and storing
• Component search
• Component understanding
• Component adaptation
• Repository maintenance
Component creation– For component creation, the reusable components have to be first identified. Selection of the right kind of components having potential for reuse is important. Domain analysis is a promising technique which can be used to create reusable components.
Component indexing and storing– Indexing requires classification of the reusable components so that they can be easily searched when looking for a component for reuse. The components need to be stored in a Relational Database Management System (RDBMS) or an Object-Oriented Database System (ODBMS) for efficient access when the number of components becomes large.
Component searching– The programmers need to search for right components matching their requirements in a database of components. To be able to search components efficiently, the programmers require a proper method to describe the components that they are looking for.
Component understanding– The programmers need a precise and sufficiently complete understanding of what the component does to be able to decide whether they can reuse the component. To facilitate understanding, the components should be well documented and should do something simple.
Component adaptation– Often, the components may need adaptation before they can be reused, since a selected component may not exactly fit the problem at hand. However, tinkering with the code is also not a satisfactory solution because this is very likely to be a source of bugs.
Repository maintenance– A component repository once is created requires continuous maintenance. New components, as and when created have to be entered into the repository.The faulty components have to be tracked. Further, when new applications emerge, the older applications become obsolete. In this case, the obsolete components might have to be removed from the repository.