Policy Driven Licensing Model for Component Software

Today, it is almost inevitable that software is licensed, rather than sold outright. As a part of the licensing policy, some protection mechanisms, whether hardware, legal or code-based, are invariably built into the license. The application of such mechanisms has primarily been in the realm of off-the-shelf, packaged, consumer software. However, as component-based software gradually becomes mainstream in software development, new component-oriented licensing systems are required. This paper proposes an enterprise component licensing model for the management of software component licenses. The model provides a comprehensive license management framework allowing for extensibility and flexibility. Furthermore, we identify differences between stand-alone software and component software, describe a high level model for policy driven component licensing, and discuss both the benefits and drawbacks of the enterprise component licensing model for the management of software component licenses

COMPONENT TECHNOLOGIES AND THEIR IMPACT UPON SOFTWARE DEVELOPMENT

Software development is beset with problems relating to development productivity, resulting in projects delivered late and over budget. While the term software engineering was first introduced in the late sixties, its current state reflects no other engineering discipline. Component-orientation has been proposed as a technique to address the problems of development productivity and much industrial literature extols the benefits of a component-oriented approach to software development. This research programme assesses the use of component technologies within industrial software development. From this assessment, consideration is given to how organisations can best adopt such techniques. Initial work focuses upon the nature of component-orientation, drawing from the considerable body of industrial literature in the area. Conventional wisdom regarding componentorientation is identified from the review. Academic literature relevant to the research programme focuses upon knowledge regarding the assessment of software technologies and models for the adoption of emergent technologies. The method pays particular attention to literature concerning practitioner focussed research, in particular case studies. The application of the case study method is demonstrated. The study of two industrial software development projects enables an examination of specific propositions related to the effect of using component technologies. Each case study is presented, and the impact of component-orientation is each case is demonstrated. Theories regarding the impact of component technologies upon software development are drawn from case study results. These theories are validated through a survey of practitioners. This enabled further examination of experience in component-based development and also understanding how developers learn about the techniques. A strategy for the transfer of research findings into organisational knowledge focuses upon the packaging of previous experience in the use of component-orientation in such a way that it was usable by other developers. This strategy returns to adoption theories in light of the research findings and identifies a pattern-based approach as the most suitable for the research aims. A pattern language, placed in the context of the research programme, is developed from this strategy. Research demonstrates that component-orientation undoubtedly does affect the development process, and it is necessary to challenge conventional wisdom regarding their use. While component-orientation provides the mechanisms for increased productivity in software development, these benefits cannot be exploited without a sound knowledge base around the domain

A case-based reasoning (CBR) approach to software reusability, 1994

Software reuse is an attractive approach to improving software development productivity. In this thesis, a Case-Based Reasoning (CBR) software reusability environment is developed, driven by object-oriented modelling techniques. This research discusses various aspects of the classification and retrieval mechanisms necessary to facilitate the reuse of software components. The facet classification scheme breaks down information into different categories, and this makes it possible to consider information about several different aspects or properties of the components. Facet represents the information most important with respect to reuse. Component specifications will be translated into a specification representing the facets in the classification scheme. The retrieval of software components is based on signature matching between the signatures of goal specifications and those of reusable components. The retrieval mechanism is supported by the CBR system ESTEEM

Integrating security policy design in the software design

Security is an integral part of most distributed modern software systems, but is still not considered as an explicit part in the development process. Security mechanisms and policies are generally added to existing systems as an afterthought, with all the problems of unsatisfied security requirements, integration difficulties and mismatches between running system and the design models. We propose to integrate the design of application-oriented access control policies early into the system’s development process. The standard language for modeling the design of systems the Unified Modeling Language (UML), is used to specify access control policies. Within the integration we will develop extensions of the UML model support the automatic generation and verification of a access control policy to configure a distributed component- based for view-based access control

Transformation of the Software Components and Web Services Market

The Service Oriented Computing paradigm, with as its main manifestation web-service technology, holds high promises, but exploits its full potential only when third-party web-services are traded in a service market to enable effective development of net-enhanced organizations and business networks. After the introduction of software source code libraries and the rise of Software Component Markets (SCMs) since 1999, Web Service Markets (WSM) represent the third wave in the trade of reusable software components. However, very little is known about the current status, structure and trends within the WSM. We present a longitudinal study of the structure of the SCM in 1999, 2000, and 2006 and a study of the WSM in 2006. The SCM has grown into a large, polluted, and un-transparent market of around 30,000 software components, offered by 28 producers, 28 catalogues, and 8 intermediaries. Our study shows that the WSM is emerging and in the early stage of development in 2006. SCM and WSM still have a long way to become transparent and effective mechanisms for organizations to obtain powerful, re-usable, and interoperable components for business networking

Verification mechanism for lightweight componenent-based environment based on IoC container

The paper presents a concept of component verification framework dedicated to a particular lightweight component  environment. A starting point of the paper constitutes a discussion about significance of  verification process of syntax inconsistencies in the software development. Next, the need of verification in service-oriented and component-based  systems are presented and various approaches of verification in existing component environments are explained. The  main part of the paper introduces a concept of a functional integrity of component-based systems that utilize  verification mechanisms checking components consistency. The proposed solution is built on fine-grained component environment  (close to classes similarly to the Spring Framework) realized in AgE platform. Selected technical aspects of the framework design  illustrate the considerations of the paper

Software development: A paradigm for the future

A new paradigm for software development that treats software development as an experimental activity is presented. It provides built-in mechanisms for learning how to develop software better and reusing previous experience in the forms of knowledge, processes, and products. It uses models and measures to aid in the tasks of characterization, evaluation and motivation. An organization scheme is proposed for separating the project-specific focus from the organization's learning and reuse focuses of software development. The implications of this approach for corporations, research and education are discussed and some research activities currently underway at the University of Maryland that support this approach are presented