Guideline: Asset-Consuming Projects
This guideline describes some key aspects of a project that consumes Reusable Assets.
Relationships
Related Elements
Main Description

Introduction

Most projects should include asset consumption as part of their development process, in order to obtain the benefits that come from reuse.

Project Management

The impacts of asset consumption on Project Management are:

  • Asset reuse is factored into cost, schedule, and risks
  • Build vs. reuse decisions are supported by effective use of information provided in reuse libraries

Environment

Before asset-based development tasks can be performed, an environment must be set up that supports these tasks. In most cases, this needs to be an environment that has broader scope than a single project, and is therefore the responsibility of the organization-level reuse program.

The individual project needs access to this environment. This typically includes access to one or more Artifact: Asset Repository. This is closely related to more generic artifacts (e.g. Project Repository) and to the setup of the project's Configuration and Change Management environment. The main difference is that the asset library is typically not under the control of the individual project, but is managed at the organizational level.

The delivery process should be updated to include the project's asset-based development tooling. For more information on tooling to support asset-based development, see Guideline: Selecting Asset-Based Development Tools.

The project-specific guidelines may also need to be modified to reflect the refined workflows. For more information on preparing project-specific guidelines, see Guideline: Preparing Project-Specific Reuse Guidelines.

Configuration and Change Management

There are general tasks that apply to consumption of any Reusable Asset. This includes locating a suitable asset (Task: Search Asset), applying the asset (Task: Use Asset), providing feedback on the asset (Task: Provide Asset Feedback), and possibly identifying other potentially Reusable Assets (Task: Conduct Recurring Problem Analysis).

Other Disciplines

All the other disciplines include asset reuse concerns. For example:

  • In the Requirements discipline, there may be specific requirements to reuse specific artifacts. For example, there may be design constraints to use a particular reference architecture. More often, reuse is a means to meet requirements with cost savings and lower risk. Reuse must be factored into the prioritization and scope management of requirements.
  • The Analysis and Design discipline has a strong reuse focus, reflected by the practice of Use Component Architectures, and by incorporating existing design elements. This in turn affects Implementation, Test, and Deployment.