A Generic Environment for COTS Testing and Quality Prediction

Summary

In this chapter, we first survey current component technologies and discuss the features they inherit. Quality assurance (QA) characteristics of component systems and the life cycle of component-based software development (CBSD) are also addressed. Based on the characteristics of the life cycle, we propose a QA model for CBSD. The model covers the eight main processes in component-based software systems (CBS) development. A Component-based Program Analysis and Reliability Evaluation (ComPARE) environment is established for evaluation and prediction of quality of components. ComPARE provides a systematic procedure for predicting the quality of software components and assessing the reliability of the final system developed using CBSD. Using different quality prediction techniques, ComPARE has been applied to a number of component-based programs. The prediction results and the effectiveness of the quality prediction models for CBSD were outlined in this chapter.