Reuse by Contract

Reuse by contract is the application of formal methods to software reuse: software components are associated with contracts formal models of their functional behaviour and administered, retrieved, and reused by these. We argue that reuse by contract is necessary for safe reuse in a formal process model, but is helpful even for more traditional software development. We discuss some obstacles against the use of formal component specifications, and propose some solutions in order to make reuse by contract practical.