A Test-Driven Approach for Extracting Libraries of Reusable Components from Existing Applications

Abstract

Abstract.In agile approaches such as Extreme Programming, time is not spent on making sure that system components can be reused in similar systems. Therefore, there is a need to investigate whether reuse can be achieved by extracting reusable assets from existing applications. This paper presents an approach that relies on refactoring and testing practices for extracting reusable assets from existing applications. The approach creates reusable APIs in a bottom-up fashion, on demand when a new application might benefit from component in an existing application. The extraction process is guided and supported by the usage examples and the testing scenarios in the existing application and the new one. The paper presents a case study, where the approach was used to extract components from the user interface of an existing application, wrap these components in an API, and use this API in the existing and new applications.

F/OSS para el reuso: métricas, desarrollo de herramientas y marco para su evaluación

“…Si no se consideran las perspectivas pragmáticas, es difícil clasificar los enfoques que se basan en técnicas para obtener componentes o partes de código reutilizables a partir de desarrollos que no necesariamente tuvieron entre sus propósitos tal reutilización [23] [22] [24]. Uno de los principales objetivos de estos enfoques es el de aprovechar el esfuerzo realizado en desarrollos previos de manera sistemática; en ese sentido, el problema a abordar tiene similitudes con la búsqueda de recursos a los que se puede acceder libremente, aunque no fueron desarrollados dentro de la propia organización.…”