Software Component Models

Kung-Kiu Lau
School of Computer Science
The University of Manchester, Manchester M13 9PL, UK
kung-kiu@cs.man.ac.uk

Abstract:

Component-based Development (CBD) is an important emerging
topic in Software Engineering, promising long sought after benefits
like increased reuse and reduced time-to-market (and hence 
software production cost). However, there are at present many obstacles 
to overcome before CBD can succeed. For one thing, CBD success is
predicated on a standardised market place for software components, 
which does not yet exist. In fact currently CBD even lacks a 
universally accepted terminology. Existing component models adopt 
different component definitions and composition operators. 
Therefore much research remains to be done. We believe that 
the starting point for this endeavour should be a thorough study of 
current component models, identifying their key characteristics and
comparing their strengths and weaknesses. A desirable side-effect 
would be clarifying and unifying the CBD terminology. In this
tutorial, we present a clear and concise exposition of all the current
major software component models, including a taxonomy. The purpose 
is to distill and present knowledge of current software component models, 
as well as to present an analysis of their properties with respect to
commonly accepted criteria for CBD. The taxonomy also provides a
starting point for a unified terminology.