Automating component-based software development

The ever-increasing demand for quality software has been driving the search for methods to develop higher quality software using lower costs within a shorter time frame. Through the use of existing software components to construct new systems, software reuse is broadly regarded as such a promising approach. However, software reuse in general has not yet fulfilled its promise to significantly improve software development productivity and software quality. In this research, we propose an approach to software reuse. Our approach is based on the premise that effective reuse can be achieved only when reuse issues are considered throughout the software development life cycle and are addressed on the basis of a formal foundation. The overall objective of this research is to develop an architecture-based component reuse framework. This framework addresses software reuse issues in an integrated fashion and is intended to be amenable to automation, in such tasks as component evaluation, adaptation, and integration. We also describe the implementation and application of a prototyping system of the proposed reuse framework.