A formative evaluation of information retrieval techniques applied to software catalogues

Software catalogues are crucial ingredients of any development process based on reuse. In fact, to be reused, software components must be first properly catalogued and then easily found and understood. In this paper we discuss how information retrieval (IR) techniques can be utilized to handle a catalogue derived from an existing software package and how their effectiveness can be assessed. An empirical evaluation of a prototype system handling an industrial-level software package is described and its outcomes are discussed. The conclusion of the formative evaluation is that such techniques are effective and that both expert and non-expert users find them useful and satisfying. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science Inc. All rights reserved.