Optimal Component Selection in Component Based Software Development

Component Based Software Development (CBSD) has been gaining more and more acceptance in the recent past due to its ability to provide better quality software in relatively less time and cost.Selection of a component is based primarily on the functionality that it provides, along with other important factors such as the value of quality attributes like functionality, security, maintainability, cost etc. The most crucial task for developers is to select the best matching component from COTS libraries. This work proposes a new metric that helps in selection of components for CBSD. The new metric, called Pliability metric, assists in evaluating and selecting from among the available candidate components from COTS libraries, thus helping developers in choosing the most suitable component from the candidate components.Based on the proposed Pliability metric a model has been developed, using integer programming, for determining if the values of the quality attributes defined by the stakeholder, such as Functionality, Maintainability, Reliability, Security etc. are achieved fully at least possible cost.