Software component certification: a survey

Component-based software engineering, the process of building software systems from reusable parts, offers the potential to radically improve the way in which software is developed. It promises increased reuse leading to higher quality and reduced time to market. "Higher quality" means that the components must have a quality stamp in terms of what level of reliability can be expected from them. Thus, the certification stands out as an essential area to evaluate the component reliability level. In this sense, this paper presents a survey of software component certification research.

1. Introduction

One of the most compelling reasons for adopting component-based approaches to software development is the premise of reuse. The idea is to build software from existing components primarily by assembling and replacing interoperable parts. The implications for reduced development time and improved product quality make this approach very attractive [1].