| Several cost models have been proposed and assessed in the past for predicting and analyzing the costs associated with software reuse. The integrated cost model, which is presented in this thesis, is based on the premise that there are four decisions in the software reuse lifecycle: the decision to adopt a reuse-based software paradigm; the decision to initiate a domain engineering initiative; the decision to use reusable assets in the development of a given application; and the decision to develop reusable assets. The integrated cost model further considers that all these decisions must be justified by an economic rationale, and all can be modeled as investment decisions. This model, a generalization of existing reuse cost models, illustrates that these investment cycles feed information into each other in a cascade pattern. |
