Reuse vs. Reusability of Software Supporting Business Processes

Reusing software is desirable, and so is reusing business processes. For reusing both in the course of developing software supporting business processes, an integration of related reuse approaches is necessary. Of course, such reuse is not for free and requires reusability of related artefacts, i.e., business process models and software parts supporting them. For successful reuse, of course, trade-offs with making artefacts reusable (or acquiring them) have to be beneficial. In this paper, we present an integration of business process and software reuse and reusability (R&R). Based on it, we compare trade-offs between making reusable and reusing in the context of developing software supporting business processes. As a consequence, it should become easier to make rational judgments on whether and how to engage in R&R of such software.