Series On Component-based Software Development - Böcker

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.

The range of components technology is both wide and diverse, but some common understanding is emerging through the ideas of model-based development. These include the notions of interfaces, contracts, services, connectors and architectures. Key issues in the application of the technology are becoming clearer, including the consistent integration of different views of a component, component composition, component coordination and transformation for platforms. However, we still know little about theories that support analysis and synthesis of component-based systems. The distinct feature of this volume is its focus on mathematical models that identify the “core” concepts as first class modeling elements, and its providing of techniques for integrating and relating them. The volume contains eleven chapters by well-established researchers writing from different perspectives. Each chapter gives explicit definitions of components in terms of a set of key aspects and addresses some of the problems of integration and analysis of various views: component specification, component composition, component coordination, refinement and substitution, and techniques for solving problems. The concepts and techniques are motivated and explained with the help of examples and case studies.