Do we really "Re"use?

Reuse has been a buzz word in all most all the software development organizations.

Reuse is any form of knowledge that can be consumed by teams without having to invest money and effort in reinventing the wheel again. It is adopted more from a technology standpoint which includes codes, utilities, frameworks, and even plug-ins.

A simple technology reuse cycle is depicted below:

Reuse components are developed for any one of the following reasons – Quality Improvement, Best Practice, Innovation & Growth, and Productivity Improvement.

Though most of the organizations do have streamlined process around reuse, the question is how effective these processes are.  Organizations concentrate more on creating reusable assets rather than concentrating on the consumption part. Unless consumed effectively, these reusable assets do not add value to the organizations. Capturing reuse savings meticulously through feedback/rating mechanisms, metadata enabled entry forms can enable organizations to understand how the reuse framework helps project teams and improvise on the same.

Dedicated Reuse team works with different teams to disseminate the knowledge components to target audience for consumption. Both contribution and consumption are as of now done through push mechanism by the reuse focus groups within the organization.

In order to inculcate the culture of creation and consumption, the following approach can be taken by the organizations:

1. Involve Reuse Focus Group right in the Engagement/Project kick off:

This can help the engagement/project teams to identify the components to be created, understand the existing tools available in Org. DB and how to reuse them.

2. Have Reuse as a strong Quality Management checkpoint:

Projects nearing closure should mandatorily share the reusable components created as a part of the engagement.

3. Reporting mechanism to track reusable components within client network:

One of the major challenges that projects face is bringing the developed reusable components from the client network and storing them in the organizational database as this may lead to IP infringement. Reuse focus groups can leverage bench resources to generalize these components to share it on the org.DB for greater consumption. Reuse focus group should constantly liaise with project teams

4. Rewards & Recognition

Oldest but reliable approach! The only difference is weightage of reward points should be higher for people who consume compared to those who create. This will increase the consumption rate resulting in quality and productivity improvement.

Remember, having a robust Reuse mechanism is surely a USP to gain edge over other market competitors. Following the above approach organizations can gain more traction over the reuse concept resulting in improvements in terms of quality, productivity, meeting deadlines and hence client satisfaction.