Selecting COTS components: a comparative study on E-Payment systems

Using COTS software promises faster time-to-market, which can yield substantial advantages over competitors with regards to earlier placement of a new product on a market. At the same time, component-based software introduces risks, such as unknown quality properties of the components in use, that can inject harmful side effects into the final product. The purpose of a COTS selection is to analyse several candidates to identify the most suitable components to be integrated. This paper presents two of the most representative COTS selection methods, which have been used to select COTS components for an E-Payment system. The role of this case discussion is to offer some guidelines related to the use of the methods for a COTS-based development process.Eje: Ingeniería de Software y Bases de Datos (ISBD)Red de Universidades con Carreras en Informática (RedUNCI

A formal model for some behavioural features of analysis patterns

It is commonly said that a pattern has four essential parts: a statement of the context where the pattern is useful, the problem that the pattern addresses, the forces that play in forming a solution, and the solution that resolves that forces. This form underlies many published patterns, including analysis patterns. They show a number of highly generic processes that cut across traditional boundaries of system development and business engineering. However, patterns are invariably described informally in the literature, generally using natural language together some sort of graphical notation. A formal model of the semantic statements of analysis patterns has been proposed by reusing some of the properties formalised for GoF patterns. In this paper, we present a formal model of some behavioural properties of analysis patterns, and we illustrate using an example how an instantiation can be done. We also briefly discuss future work which will extend the model to include more behavioural propertiesÁrea: Ingeniería de Software - Bases de DatosRed de Universidades con Carreras en Informática (RedUNCI

Applying learning style models to prioritize conflicting goals

In this paper, we explicitly consider a learning style model to extend a goal-oriented requirements analysis method in order to characterize stakeholders’ preferences in communication processes. The success of applying this method depends on the definition of the goals involved, and on the prioritization and selection among conflicting goals. Our proposal focalises on the resolution of this kind of conflicts studying the way people perceive, understand, learn and process information. The characterisation we consider would help analysts in situations where preferences, goals and skills, among relevant stakeholders are mismatched.Eje: Ingeniería de SoftwareRed de Universidades con Carreras en Informática (RedUNCI

Stability for component integration assessment

Component-Based Software Development is focused on assembling previously existing components (COTS and other non-developmental items) into larger systems, and migrating existing systems toward component approaches. Ideally, most of the application developer’s time is spent integrating components. We present an approach that can be used in the process of establishing component integration’s quality as an important field to resolving CBS quality problems – problems ranging from CBS quality definition, measurement, analysis, and improvement to tools, methods and processes. In this paper, we introduce an important property we called system’s stability as part of a cycle for assessing and improving component-based systems. This property is the basis for determining the impact of incorporating COTS components into a stable system.Eje: Ingeniería de SoftwareRed de Universidades con Carreras en Informática (RedUNCI

Setting a process to effectively measure COTS functional suitability

In attempting to build a COTS integrated system, selection of candidates typically pays attention to specify search criteria and goals to be met. Yet they often overlook some elements in the process such as fact-based decisions and teamwork, which might drive the process helping increase the probability of success. In this paper, we identify some features that we have found useful in our research, and which we believe need further discussion before integrating a process for COTS components measurement.Eje: Ingeniería de SoftwareRed de Universidades con Carreras en Informática (RedUNCI

Distributed enterprise modelling guided by business rules

Enterprise architectures create a technical platform to meet current and future business needs. In this sense, architectural components ensure IT capabilities are modelled in every business process. Current approaches to enterprise architecting tend to focus on reducing the effort required to design business processes by using the resources provided by the Web to support new inter-organisational processes. This often leads to the development of services where some generic features or rules are particularly similar across different processes. We describe and illustrate the use of business rules to share components across many different views. Having a business rule front end lets a component offer different access rights and visibility to different clients. We present an approach that might be used in the process of enterprise architecting in conjunction with a service-oriented perspective.Eje: Ingeniería de softwareRed de Universidades con Carreras en Informática (RedUNCI

Methods for measurement-based COTS assessments and selection

During recent years, new software engineering paradigms like component-based software engineering and COTS-based development have emerged. Both paradigms are concerned with reuse and customisation of existing components. The use of COTS software has become more and more important in state-of-the-art and state-of-the-practice software and system development. Using COTS software promises faster time-to-market, which can yield substantial advantages over competitors with regards to earlier placement of a new product on a market. At the same time, COTS software introduces risks such as unknown quality properties of the COTS software in use that can inject harmful side effects into the final product. In this paper, we present a brief comparison of well-known COTS evaluation methods. Our work is focused on identifying the main goals and features of the methods in order to extend their uses on evaluating COTS products as well as COTS development processes.Eje: Ingeniería de Software y Base de DatosRed de Universidades con Carreras en Informática (RedUNCI

Issues for assessing component-based systems

The use of component-based software has become more and more important in state-of-the-art and state-of-the-practice of software and system development. Using COTS software promises faster time-to-market, which can yield substantial advantages over competitors with regards to earlier placement of a new product on a market. At the same time, component-based software introduces risks such as unknown quality properties of the components in use that can inject harmful side effects into the final product. This paper proposes a multidimensional classification scheme for assessing component-based systems. The classification scheme provides insight into what quality characteristics, managerial features, or assessment methods and techniques might be used for evaluating different component artefacts.Eje: Ingeniería de softwareRed de Universidades con Carreras en Informática (RedUNCI