This paper presents a methodology and associated technology to create context-specific usability guidelines. The objective is to transform usability guidelines into a proactive resource that software developers can employ early and often in the development process. The methodology ensures conformance with established guidelines, but has the flexibility to use design experiences to adapt the guidelines to meet the emergent and diverse requirements of modern user interface design. Case-based and organizational learning technology is used to support the methodology and provide valuable resources for software developers.

While many reusable methods assume that developers will eventually become motivated to search for reusable components, few have addressed the issue of identifying when in the development process potentially reusable information exists. In this paper, a method is introduced that embeds reusable information in a process model that is customized to the specific needs of development efforts. By reusing these processes, projects draw on the collective experiences of the organization to apply known best practices to specific business requirements. A formal deviation process is used to allow development efforts to modify the process to suit their needs. To ensure continuous acquisition of reusable process information, deviations become part of the defined process so that future efforts with similar characteristics can use the same processes.

Software development is a knowledge-intensive activity involving the integration of diverse knowledge sources that undergo constant change. The volatility of knowledge in software development requires that knowledge bases are able to support a continuous knowledge acquisition process where tools are available that can make use of partial knowledge. To address these issues, case-based technology is used in combination with an organizational learning process to create an approach that turns Standard Development Methodologies (SDM) into living documents that capture project experiences and emerging requirements as they are encountered in an organization. A rule-based system is used to tailor the SDM to meet the characteristics of individual projects and provide relevant development knowledge throughout the development lifecycle.

Repositories for software reuse are faced with two interrelated problems: (1) acquiring the knowledge to initially construct the repository and (2) modifying the repository to meet the evolving and dynamic needs of software development organizations. Current software repository methods rely heavily on classification, which exacerbates acquistition and evolution problems by requiring costly classification and domain analysis efforts before a repository can be used effectively, This article outlines an approach that avoids these problems by choosing a retrieval method that utilizes minimal repository structure to effectively support the process of finding software conponents. The approach is demonstrated through a pair of proof-of-concept prototypes: PEEL, a tool to semiautomatically identify reusable components, and CodeFinder, a retrieval system that compensates for the lack of explicit knowledge structures through a spreading activation retrieval process. CodeFinder also allows component representations to be modified while users are searching for information. This mechanism adapts to the changing nature of the information in the repository and incrementally improves the repository while people use it. The combination of these techniques holds potential for designing software repositories that minimize up-front costs, effectively support the search process, and evolve with an organization's changing needs.

The inability of software reuse to reach its full potential lies partially in the product-centric way in which we view software development. Methods are needed that help us reason about product families and degrees of support that can be offered for problem domains. This paper uses a "domain lifecycle" to formalize a process in which increasing levels of formality can be provided as a domain matures. The first step in this process is to collect and disseminate project experiences that can accelerate the process of identifying and refining application domains with significant impact in a software development organization. This approach facilitates the reuse of a broad spectrum of knowledge at multiple levels of formality. Based on empirical investigations of a software development organization, a prototype of a case-based organizational memory repository for software development practices is presented and assessed for its impact on reusing software development knowledge.

As the application of computer technology continues to proliferate and diversify, the identification and understanding of application domains is becoming increasingly important to software development methodologies.Domain analysis techniques have been developed to accumulate and formalize the knowledge necessary for successful software reuse.These techniques have been shown to be useful, but suffer from defining the domain too restrictively, burying important relationships deep in domain taxonomies, and prohibiting flexible identification of domains with common issues.Techniques are needed that dynamically detect recurring patterns of activities in development projects, This paper presents a method for developing and refining the knowledge and experience accumulated by a development organization so it can learn from previous efforts.A case-based repository of project experiences supports the re-use and refinement of domain knowledge to reduce duplicate effort, build on successful efforts, and avoid repeating mistakes in the process of building quality software systems.

Traditional information access systems generally assume that a well-articulated query exists, and that once an object is found, it can be readily understood. Although this assumption works for retrieving text objects, in more complex domains, such as retrieving software objects for reuse, queries must be incrementally constructed and support is needed for comprehending what is retrieved. Therefore, information access methods need support for query construction and relevance evaluation as an integral part of the location process. Two prototype systems are described for supporting this need: CODEFINDER for query construction and EXPLAINER for explanations of program examples. These systems interact to support the processes of locating and comprehending software objects for reuse.