Component Based Software Engineering

Component-Based Software Engineering (CBSE) is the way to produce software fast. This book presents the concepts in CBSE. While detailing both the advantages and the limitations of CBSE, it covers every aspect of component engineering, from software engineering practices to the design of software component infrastructure, technologies, and system.

Component-based software development regards software construction in terms of conventional engineering disciplines where the assembly of systems from readily-available prefabricated parts is the norm. Because both component-based systems themselves and the stakeholders in component-based development projects are different from traditional software systems, component-based testing also needs to deviate from traditional software testing approaches. Gross first describes the specific challenges related to component-based testing like the lack of internal knowledge of a component or the usage of a component in diverse contexts. He argues that only built-in contract testing, a test organization for component-based applications founded on building test artifacts directly into components, can prevent catastrophic failures like the one that caused the now famous ARIANE 5 crash in 1996. Since building testing into components has implications for component development, built-in contract testing is integrated with and made to complement a model-driven development method. Here UML models are used to derive the testing architecture for an application, the testing interfaces and the component testers. The method also provides a process and guidelines for modeling and developing these artifacts. This book is the first comprehensive treatment of the intricacies of testing component-based software systems. With its strong modeling background, it appeals to researchers and graduate students specializing in component-based software engineering. Professionals architecting and developing component-based systems will profit from the UML-based methodology and the implementation hints based on the XUnit and JUnit frameworks.

Component-based software development (CBD) is an emerging discipline that promises to take software engineering into a new era. Building on the achievements of object-oriented software construction, CBD aims to deliver software engineering from a cottage industry into an industrial age for Information Technology, wherein software can be assembled from components, in the manner that hardware systems are currently constructed from kits of parts. This volume provides a survey of the current state of CBD, as reflected by activities that have been taking place recently under the banner of CBD, with a view to giving pointers to future trends. The contributions report case studies - self-contained, fixed-term investigations with a finite set of clearly defined objectives and measurable outcomes - on a sample of the myriad aspects of CBD. The book includes chapters dealing with COTS (commercial off-the-shelf) components; methodologies for CBD; compositionality, i.e. how to calculate or predict properties of a composite from those of its constituents; component software testing; and grid computing.

This book focuses on a specialized branch of the vast domain of software engineering: component-based software engineering (CBSE). Component-Based Software Engineering: Methods and Metrics enhances the basic understanding of components by defining categories, characteristics, repository, interaction, complexity, and composition. It divides the research domain of CBSE into three major sub-domains: (1) reusability issues, (2) interaction and integration issues, and (3) testing and reliability issues. This book covers the state-of-the-art literature survey of at least 20 years in the domain of reusability, interaction and integration complexities, and testing and reliability issues of component-based software engineering. The aim of this book is not only to review and analyze the previous works conducted by eminent researchers, academicians, and organizations in the context of CBSE, but also suggests innovative, efficient, and better solutions. A rigorous and critical survey of traditional and advanced paradigms of software engineering is provided in the book. Features: In-interactions and Out-Interactions both are covered to assess the complexity. In the context of CBSE both white-box and black-box testing methods and their metrics are described. This work covers reliability estimation using reusability which is an innovative method. Case studies and real-life software examples are used to explore the problems and their solutions. Students, research scholars, software developers, and software designers or individuals interested in software engineering, especially in component-based software engineering, can refer to this book to understand the concepts from scratch. These measures and metrics can be used to estimate the software before the actual coding commences.

Here's a complete guide to building reliable component-based software systems. Written by world-renowned experts in the component-based software engineering field, this unique resource helps you manage complex software through the development, evaluation and integration of software components. You quickly develop a keen awareness of the benefits and risks to be considered when developing reliable systems using components. A strong software engineering perspective helps you gain a better understanding of software component design, to build systems with stronger requirements, and avoid typical errors throughout the process, leading to improved quality and time to market.

The papers presented in this book reflects the substantial research efforts taking place at SEI focusing on the development, deployment, and evolution of component-based software systems. The book explores many issues critical to component-based software engineering. It provides you with a foundation to better understand, apply, and improve your approach to software development. This SEI work identifies the primary considerations in moving from a traditional development approach to a component-based approach: evaluating software components, assembling components within an appropriate software architecture, and introducing and evolving a component-based system.

- First book of its kind (case studies in CBD) - Covers different kinds of components - Covers different component models/technologies - Includes a wide scope of CBD topics - Covers both theoretical and practical work - Includes both formal and informal approaches - Provides a snapshot of current concerns and pointers to future trends

This book, first published in 1997, covers the most important topics in Componentware(TM) technology, based in large part on the first Component Users Conference.