Task: Use Asset
Use the asset in the context of the Asset Consumer.
Disciplines: Asset-Based Development
Purpose

To incorporate or instantiate a located Reusable Asset into the project or your workspace. The time it takes to search, browse, evaluate, and reuse an asset impacts the value of the asset.

For more information on locating an asset, see Task: Search Asset.

Relationships
RolesPrimary Performer: Additional Performers:
InputsMandatory:
    Optional:
    • None
    Outputs
      Main Description

      Using an asset is the main purpose of creating an asset. There is reuse costs associated with using an asset. There are several factors affecting the costs of reusing an asset, such as:

      1. Time and effort to search, browse and evaluate an asset.
      2. The complexity of the asset, which can affect the effort to evaluate the asset, as well as the effort to reuse the asset.
      3. Nature and quality of asset packaging material which affects effort to comprehend.
      4. The level or degree of customization of an asset.

      Mitigating these factors with well-organized, well-designed, and well-packaged assets directly affects the breakeven point, or rather, payoff threshold. See Asset Production tasks to address guidance on well-formed assets to benefit Asset Consumers.

      Black box and white box reuse, or, reusing an asset "as-is" and reusing an asset making internal modifications impacts the usage strategy for an asset.

      Black box style reuse implies the asset internals are not open to the Asset Consumer and it is manipulated only by formal controls. Services are a great example of black box reuse, providing a formal interface that exposes some level of control through parameters and messages.

      Design models may be white box reuse if the Asset Producer permits access to manipulate the model. White box reuse implies a requirement to maintain the consumed asset.

      Steps
      Retrieve Asset

      Asset Consumer uses the documentation or other guidance to bring the asset into Asset Consumer's environment. Typically Repositories will store metrics that an asset has been downloaded.

      A challenge is to understand when to count that the asset has been reused. Some Repositories provide feedback mechanisms to register when reuse occurs. Certainly not all downloads can be mapped to reuse as someone may be evaluating an asset.

      For the purpose of impact analysis, it is very useful for Repositories to provide mechanisms to track who has downloaded the asset and for what projects. A sample list of asset usage information to track is found below:

      • What user downloaded the asset
      • Where the asset is being used, summarized by the following:
        • Project.
        • Engagement.
        • Application.
        • Build.

      Registering this information in the Repository provides a means for the appropriate parties to be notified of key events such as critical problems reported, new asset versions, asset reviews, and so forth.

      Extend Asset
      Some assets can be extended through variability points, a location in an asset or a contained artifact to be customized or extended. See Concept: Variability Point.
      More Information