J. Sametinger, A. Stritzinger, Exploratory Software Development with Class Libraries, Shifting Paradigms in Software Engineering, R. Mittermeier (Ed.), Springer-Verlag, 1992. Proceedings of the 7th Joint Conference of the Austrian Computer Society (OCG) and the John von Neumann Society for Computing Sciences (NJSZT), Klagenfurt, 1992
DOI: 10.1007/978-3-7091-9258-0_4
Software development based on the classical software life-cycle proves inadequate for many ambitious projects. Exploratory software development is an alternative way of building software systems by eliminating deficiencies of the conventional software life cycle. Instead of exactly defining the various phases of the life cycle, exploratory software development takes small development steps, whereby a single step results in an extension or an improvement of the existing system.
The object-oriented programming paradigm has resulted in increased reuse of existing software components. Therefore, class libraries will become very important in the near future. Exploratory software development is very well suited to this situation and thus provides a major step forward in economically developing software systems.
In this paper we depict deficiencies of the classical software life cycle, present the exploratory software development strategy, and especially illustrate exploratory software development in combination with the reuse of class libraries.