A Fuzzy Approach to Faceted Classification and Retrieval of Reusable Software Components

Software reuse can be very useful in increasing the productivity and the quality level of a company, but appropriate classification and retrieval tools have to be provided in order to exploit its pros. The classic classification and retrieval methods based upon a controlled, fixed vocabulary are not very flexible and can be unsatisfactory in many cases, especially when the specification are not fully defined. An improvement in this sense can be obtained applying some simple fuzzy concepts to the well known faceted classification method. Such a method based upon the same structures used in the traditional faceted classification is described. The method allows the user to specify how much a keyword is representative of the searched components, giving the means to specify the undesired keywords, too, through a set of fuzzy attributes.