Component Certification Process and Standards

Abstract

Component-based technology deals with the process of assembling existing software components in an application such that they interact to satisfy a predefined functionality. The success of component-based software depends on system integrator’s ability to select the most suitable software components for their intended application (Leavens and Sitaraman, 2000; Voas and Payne, 2000; Crnkovic et al., 2001). One persistent and largely unaddressed challenge is how the consumers of software components can obtain a meaningful level of trust in the runtime behaviour of software components. The most frequently cited concerns are centered on issues of security and component behaviour (Wallnau, 2004). Certification is a practical, proven means of establishing trust in various sorts of things in other disciplines and is, therefore a natural contender for developing trust in software components. This is only possible if component suppliers have clear and reliable information about their component’s functional and non-functional properties. The component attributes allow system integrator to better classify the components. The reliability of a component-based software system is dependant on the reliability of the components that is made of. Proper search, selection, and evaluation process of components is considered as cornerstone for the development of any effective component-based system (Alexandre, 2010).This chapter defines certain properties of a component, which are helpful during their classification process along with component certification/accreditation process, which further helps component suppliers to issue the guarantee of claimed functional properties and quality attributes. Component certification framework is also discussed to evaluate the quality of software components with the help of component quality model and measurement mechanism.