On Systematic Design of Protectors for Employing OTS Items

Off-the-shelf (OTS) components are increasingly used in application areas with stringent dependability requirements. Component wrapping is a well known structuring technique used in many areas. We propose a general approach to developing protective wrappers that assist in integrating OTS items with a focus on the overall system dependability. The wrappers are viewed as redundant software used to detect errors or suspicious activity and to execute appropriate recovery when possible; wrapper development is considered as a part of system integration activities. Wrappers are to be rigorously specified and executed at run time as a means of protecting OTS items against faults in the rest of the system, and the system against the OTS item's faults. Possible symptoms of erroneous behaviour to be detected by a protective wrapper and possible actions to be undertaken in response are listed and discussed. The information required for wrapper development is provided by traceability analysis. Possible approaches to implementing “protectors” in the standard current component technologies are briefly outline

Reliability Estimation Model for Software Components Using CEP

This paper presents a graphical complexity measure based approach with an illustration for estimating the reliability of software component. This paper also elucidates how the graph-theory concepts are applied in the field of software programming. The control graphs of several actual software components are described and the correlation between intuitive complexity and the graph-theoretic complexity are illustrated. Several properties of the graph theoretic complexity are presented which shows that the software component complexity depends only on the decision structure. A symbolic reliability model for component based software systems from the execution path of software components connected in series, parallel or mixed configuration network structure is presented with a crisp narration of the factors which influence computation of the overall reliability of component based software systems. In this paper, reliability estimation model for software components using Component Execution Paths (CEP) based on graph theory is elucidated

Efficiently Managing Security Concerns in Component Based System Design

Component-based software development (CBSD) offers many advantages like reduced product time to market, reduced complexity and cost etc. Despite these advantages its wide scale utilization in developing security critical systems is currently hampered because of lack, of suitable design techniques to efficiently manage the complete system security concerns in the development process. The use of commercial of the shelf (COTS) components can introduce various security and reliability risks in the system. In this paper we propose a methodology for efficient management of all the system security concerns involved in the design of component based systems. Our methodology is based on formally representing the system security specifications and component capabilities. We identify the metrics for correlating both and suggest extensions to a previously proposed software development process, for selection of suitable components and integration mechanisms. The proposed solution ensures due treatment of all the security concerns for the complete system in the acquisition efforts

A Graph-Based Model for Component-Based Software Development

Software metrics can be used to objectively quantify the quality of software components and systems, alleviating quality and risk concerns and raising assurance in component-based systems. In this paper, we present a graph-based model for component-based software development. We assume that a number of components have been characterized in terms of non-functional metrics of importance to the software system being developed, and that the interfaces connecting various components have been similarly characterized. The emphasis of this work is on cost and quality of the system under development, and reaching an acceptable compromise between the two

A quality-model-based approach for describing and evaluating software packages

Selection of software packages from user requirements is a central task in software engineering. Selection of inappropriate packages may compromise business processes and may interfere negatively in the functioning of the involved organization. Success of package selection is endangered because of many factors, one of the most important being the absence of structured descriptions of both package features and user quality requirements. In this paper, we propose a methodology for describing quality factors of software packages using the ISO/IEC quality standard as a framework. Following this standard, relevant attributes for a specific software domain are identified and structured as a hierarchy, and metrics for them are chosen. Software packages in this domain can then be described in a uniform and comprehensive way. Therefore, selection of packages can be ameliorated by transforming user quality requirements into requirements expressed in terms of quality model attributes. We illustrate the approach by presenting, in some depth, a quality model for the mail server domain.Peer ReviewedPostprint (published version

SCfM_Prod: A software product certification model

In recent years, there has been an increasing interest in software development and ICT as they become a central issue for business surviving. Companies and software houses are competing to produce software which are claimed to be good and fulfil user's expectation. Therefore, quality aspect of a software product has seen as an important issue but companies that develop the software could not justify and guarantee the quality of their products, thus leaving users in uncertainties. Previous studies have indicated that assessment and certification by an independent assessor may help determining confident in the product. The certification reports are beneficial not only to the users and stakeholders but also to the developers and suppliers. This research proposes a software certification model by end product quality approach or SCfM_Prod. It is an alternative approach to monitor and guarantee level of quality of a software product. This model consists of four main entities: pragmatic quality factor (PQF), assessment team, certification representation method and repository. This paper explains in detail of this model