Reusability-based quality framework for software components

Abstract

Component based software engineering (CBSE) is a pivotal approach to software development since it helps to give much aspired benefits like reusability, on-time delivery, high quality at low cost to software companies. Therefore, individual software components must be selected with care as these are crucial to the success of the CBSE approach. The selection of a highly reusable and high-quality component is still a herculean task since stakeholders with varying expectations are involved in the software engineering process. This paper presents a reusability based quality model, which is suited to the identification and evaluation of software components. Three major stakeholders are recognized, which are important in the selection of a software component as well as to the development of software. In the proposed model, only those quality properties are incorporated that are preferred by stakeholders and necessary to increase the reuse of software components.