Frequently when we introduce a new feature into an application we may produce artifacts, such as useful methods or classes that could be reused in other areas of our applications. These artifacts are not necessarily documented as functional requirements as they are usually a side-effect of our implementation choices. Since we often develop in teams, it is important to share these pieces of code to prevent rework and duplication.
Examples:
What have you found to be the most effective way of sharing these artifacts?
How do you convey the assumptions you made when you created them?
How do you ensure they are consumed correctly?
I am interested in best practices and proven techniques around documentation, code diagrams, meetings(?) to ensure code is reused correctly.
This question is very similar to: Finding Reusable code but I'm interested in a more proactive than reactive approach.
Our team has a number of helpful libraries that we use throughout our development. These libraries are kept in a common repository in sort of an "open-source" methodology. There is one person who oversees each library (or multiple libraries) and developers can submit patches.
The libraries are then released/built to a common location (we deploy to a web server) where people can then download them and use them in whatever project they would like. So far, it has worked pretty well. The only thing we have to watch out for is, if there is an API change, we must make sure we make sure everybody realizes this. We do this through version numbers and through information on our library wiki.
Edit: In addition, we publish the generated docs for our libraries (Javadoc, Crystal Report, whatever) so that developers can utilize those.