Why should software engineering service providers utilize metrics-based software code reuse?

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The manufacturing industry has reused components for a long time. A high level of reuse not only reduces waste but also lowers the cost of production and reduces time-to-market. Now this concept is being adopted by engineering service providers for part of the software product development process. Software code reuse helps clients save resources, which provides cost advantages and also enables engineering service providers to reduce redundancy and time. In many cases, engineering service providers claim to be using software code reuse components for client engagements, but often software product engineering buyers don’t have visibility into software code reuse by service providers and are not sure whether they are getting the benefit of it.

In our Software Product Engineering Blueprint, we asked software product engineering customers to rate service providers on different major capabilities. The capabilities were broadly divided into six categories and the response is depicted as below.

As the Exhibit shows, the code reuse capability of engineering service providers is rated as the lowest capability. Software product engineering buyers don’t know whether service providers are performing any software code reuse and also have no visibility in case the software code reuse is implemented.

Currently, software code reuse is seen as an industry best practice for IT service providers but often there are no metrics/KPIs identified to measure it. Therefore, there is a need to measure software code reuse capability and performance because what is measured is what gets done.

We have developed a PoV focused on the metrics-based approach that software product engineering buyers can use to drive software code reuse in their engineering engagements with service providers. Software product engineering service providers should also use software code reuse metrics proactively to demonstrate their capabilities even if customers are not asking for it.

Some service providers are hesitant to highlight their software code reuse as if customers know about software code reuse then they might ask for discounts in pricing. This in our opinion is a short-term thinking. The customers will anyway know about the software code reuse from analysts, advisors and competitors and then service providers will risk losing their credibility and contract. It is better to disrupt the engagements with software code reuse yourself than leave the room for competitors to disrupt it. Also, with code reuse KPIs, engineering service providers might have a better business case of outsourcing in comparison to the customer’s internal software product development in their in-house R&D centers.

HfS subscribers can click here to download the full POV for developing a plan for metrics based software code reuse in software product engineering  .

Posted in : Procurement and Supply Chain

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