Reusability is achieved by having a single implementation base of common functionality, whether it is at the platform layer, or at the business process layer.

Common tasks like Encryption, Transport, Logging, Database Access, Security, etc need to be uniform across the enterprise in order to be useful. The right place for these components is an Enterprise Class Library that is available to all developers. The use of an Enterprise Class Library (ECL) that incorporates these features should be made Mandatory, so every developer does not have to come up with his own implementation and strategy for these. Explore and identify the existence of an Enterprise Class Library. If there isn’t one, inform your manager and collaborate with other developers to come up with one. If there is an ECL that already exists then get a copy of it on your computer and explore it. If you find functionality that is inadequate or missing, you should incorporate this into the ECL so not only you, but the entire team can use it.

Cross Platform ECL will require some extra work and wrapping if you work across a multitude of platforms, but that is where Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) steps in. The goal is to drive Business Process Productivity instead of spending time in Platform Engineering, or re-engineering the same functionality on multiple platforms. For example, an Asynchronous logging routine written in C# can be encapsulated in a fire and forget Web Service, which uses the Logging ECL. Now we could implement downloadable stubs for C, C++ and Java applications that could then implement logging without having to re-invent the wheel. Another benefit of this approach is that logging becomes centralized.