Reuse and Productivity in Integrated Computer-Aided Software Engineering : An Empirical Study

Growing competition in the investment bankingindustry has given rise to increasing demand forhigh functionality software applications that canbe developed in a short period of time. Yet deliveringsuch applications creates a bottleneck insoftware development activities. This dilemmacan be addressed when firms shift to developmentmethods that emphasize software reusability.This article examines the productivityimplications of object and repository-based integratedcomputer-aided software engineering(ICASE) software development in the context ofa major investment bank's information systemsstrategy. The strategy emphasizes softwarereusability. Our empirical results, based on datafrom 20 projects that delivered software for thebank's New Trades Processing Architecture(NTPA), indicate an order of magnitude gain insoftware development productivity and the importanceof reuse as a driver in realizing this result.In addition, results are presented on the extent of the learning that occurred over a two-year period after ICASE was introduced, and on the influence of the link between application characteristics and the ICASE tool set in achieving development performance. This work demonstratesthe viability of the firm's IS strategy andoffers new ideas for code reuse and softwaredevelopment productivity measurement that canbe applied in development environments that emphasizereuse