SOFTWARE PROCESS—Improvement and Practice Softw. Process Improve. Pract. 4, 173–182 (1998) A Practical Strategy for Industrial Reuse Improvement Antony Powell 1 * and Duncan Brown 2 1 Rolls-Royce University Technology Centre, Department of Computer Science, University of York, Heslington, York, YO1 5DD, U.K. Research Section 2 Rolls-Royce plc, PO Box 31, Derby, DE24 8BJ, U.K. Rolls-Royce plc have first-hand experience of delivering systematic software reuse in the production of real-time embedded control systems for civil aeroengine applications. Reuse levels of 80% have been achieved between control system developments giving substantial economic savings, along with reduced cycle times and assured software quality. However, since these early savings were aided by intrinsic similarities between projects, there has been no room for complacency. Faced with new and more diverse applications, the reuse process will increasingly be a major determinant of business performance. A continuous search for reuse improvement has therefore become a strategic necessity. This paper presents some results of the PRIME project in the form of a six-step reuse improvement strategy. It is notable for the concept of improvement paths – the effective ‘policy levers’ that a project manager can use to control the reuse process. The improvement framework and lessons learned will be of interest to practitioners interested or actively involved in reuse and to researchers engaged in reuse technology transfer. Copyright  1998 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. KEY WORDS: continuous reuse improvement; metrics INTRODUCTION The last decade has seen a significant body of research aimed at unlocking the economic potential of systematic software reuse. However, the transfer of research principles into industrial practice has been more problematic than the seductive sim- plicity of reuse ideology has led us to believe. Pragmatists are acutely aware that successful reuse Correspondence to: Antony Powell, Rolls-Royce University Technology Centre, Department of Computer Science, University of York, Heslington, York, YO1 5DD, U.K. E-mail: antony. powellcs.york.ac.uk Contract/grant sponsor: European Systems and Software Initiat- ive Contract/grant number: 21670 CCC 1077-4866/98/03173-10$17.50 Copyright  1998 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. depends on cultural and organizational issues as much as supporting technology. The evidence that systematic reuse can have a significant impact on business performance is now compelling. Hewlett-Packard divisions have used reuse to double productivity, halve defects, and dramatically reduce time-to-market (Lim 1994). Motorola’s 86% reuse level provided a tenfold increase in productivity (Joos 1994) and Rockwell International experienced benefits of lower project bids and of responsiveness to customer needs (O’Connor et al. 1994). These and other published studies stress that achieving successful reuse requires a large amount of foresight, investment and, above all, commitment. However, for those inspired to embark on a reuse programme the route to successful reuse is by no means clear; experience from a wide variety of domains and