Goal-oriented and similarity-based retrieval of software engineering experienceware

摘要

For the successful reuse of software engineering know-how in practice, useful and appropriate experienceware has to be retrieved from a corporate memory. As support is required for different processes, purposes, and environments, the usefulness of retrieved experiences depends mainly on the particular reuse situation. Thus, a flexible retrieval method and similarity measure is required, which can continuously be tailored to specific situations based on feedback from its application in practice. This paper proposes a case-based approach for the retrieval of software engineering experienceware taking into account those specific characteristics of the software engineering domain, such as the lack of explicit domain models in practice, diversity of environments and software processes to be supported, incompleteness of data, and the consideration of 《similarity》of experiences. The approach is illustrated through its application in the REMEX system, a prototypical Experience Base application for the experience-based support of the planning of software measurement programs.