Software component importance evaluation system

A significance evaluation system with a recording and storage medium, used to reuse software components, which evaluates significance of software components, the system comprising:

• similarity analysis means for determining similarity between a software component and another software component;
• cluster analysis means for clustering said software component and a similar software component together into a component group, said similar software component being said another software component that has been determined to be similar to said software component;
• inter-file relationship extraction means for extracting inter-file relationships, said inter-file relationships being relationships among said software component and said another software component;
• inter-component group relationship extraction means for extracting inter-component group relationships, said inter-component group relationships being relationships among said component group and another component group;
• relative significance calculation means for evaluating relative significance of said component group and said another component group, said inter-component group relationships being used to evaluate said relative significance;
• and
• means for conversion from the relative significance of said component group to an evaluated value of said software component,
• wherein said inter-file relationships are from the group consisting of inter-class inheritance, implementation of an abstract classes and interfaces, and calling of methods, and
• wherein said relative significance calculation means obtains the evaluated value by calculating an eigen vector with an eigen value λ=1 for a square matrix D made up of the distribution ratio d as an element.