A Guidelines for Controlled Experimental Design to Evaluate the Metrics of Software Component Reusability

Abstract

This research aims is to develop an approach in supporting component developers measure the reusability of developed software components. The approach could be used by software developers to select the reusable components during software development. Thus, this paper presents a controlled experimental design using human subjects. The overall method includes a detail explanation of the procedures and guidelines for performing the experimental activities. The experiment consists of numerous activities: designing the experimental method and procedure, designing the experimental tasks, running the controlled experiment, collecting data, analyzing the results, and recommending improvements based on the implications of earlier studies. The findings of the study can be applied to evaluate the metrics for the Component Reusability Evaluation Approach (CREA), namely documentation, observability, customisability, and the external dependency of the component.