A method for built-in tests in component-based software maintenance

Viewing software structure as a composition of components is helpful to enable software maintenance to be carried out at a higher level than language statements, as well as to improve software maintenance efficiency and quality, and to increase the reuse rate of existing software components in maintenance. In this paper, types of software maintenance are classified and scopes of software components in component-based software maintenance are analyzed. A new kind of built-in test (BIT) components for maintainable software is developed Based on this, a test/maintenance mode of maintainable software is proposed. Implementation approaches of the BIT components for software maintenance are developed. Applications of the BIT components in enhancing software maintainability in reengineering legacy systems for maintainability, and in ensuring run-time consistency are described.