Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Considering Variabilities during Component Selection in Product Family Development

  • Conference paper
  • First Online:
Software Product-Family Engineering (PFE 2001)

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science ((LNCS,volume 2290))

Included in the following conference series:

Abstract

Within the last decade, software engineering research and practice has enforced the reuse of existing components and COTS (commercial of the shelf systems). Various processes for evaluating and selecting components and COTS during system design and implementation have been proposed. In this paper we discuss the shortcomings of existing component/COTS selection processes. In contrast to all existing COTS selection processes, we argue that three important facets have to be considered when selecting a COTS for a product family, namely:

  • the variability to be offered by the product family,

  • the architectural concerns and

  • the functional and quality requirements defined for the product family. We discuss the interplay between the component/COTS selection process and the three facets and sketch our selection process CoVAR (Component selection considering Variability, Architectural concerns, and Requirements) which considers all three facets.

This work has been funded by the ESAPS project (BMBF, Förderkennzeichen 01 IS 902 C/9 and Eureka gs 2023 Programme, ITEA project 99005).

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution
Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 39.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD 54.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

Preview

Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.

Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.

References

  1. Bosch, Jan; “Design & Use of Software Architectures”, Addison-Wesley 2000.

    Google Scholar 

  2. Brown, Alan W.; Wallnau, Kurt C.; “Engineering of Component-Based Systems”, Proceedings of the 2nd IEEE International Conference on Engineering of Complex Systems, 1996, 414–422.

    Google Scholar 

  3. Clements, Paul; Northrop, Linda; “A Framework for Software Product Line Practice—Version 3.0”, Software Engineering Institute, 2001.

    Google Scholar 

  4. Carney, David; Long, Fred; “What Do You Mean by COTS”, IEEE Software March/April 2000, p. 83–86.

    Google Scholar 

  5. Czarnecki, Krzysztof; Eisenecker, Ulrich; “Generative Programming”, Addison-Wesley 2000.

    Google Scholar 

  6. Fox, Greg; Lantner, Karen; Marcom, Steven; “A Software Development Process for COTSbased Information System Infrastructure”, Proceedings of the 5th International Symposium on Assessment of Software Tools (SAST’ 97), p. 133–142.

    Google Scholar 

  7. Garlan, David; Allen, Robert; Ockerbloom, John; “Architectural Mismatch: Why Reuse Is So Hard”, IEEE Computer, November 1995, p. 17–26.

    Google Scholar 

  8. Hansen, Wilfred J.; “A Generic Process and Terminology for Evaluating COTS Software“, Workshop on Component-Based Software Engineering Processes, Held in Conjunction with the TOOLS Conference, 1999.

    Google Scholar 

  9. Jazayeri, Mehdi; Ran, Alexander; van der Linden, Frank; “Software Architecture for Product Families”, Addison-Wesley 2000.

    Google Scholar 

  10. Kitchenham, Barbara Ann; Jones, Lindsay; “Evaluating Software Engineering Methods and Tool—Part 5: The Influence of Human Factors”, Software Engineering Notes, ACM, vol. 22, no. 1, 1997.

    Google Scholar 

  11. Kontio, Jyrki; “OTSO: A systematic Process for Reusable Software Component Selection”, technical Report CS-TR-3487, University of Maryland, 1995.

    Google Scholar 

  12. Kontio, Jyrki; “A Case Study in Applying a Systematic Method for COTS Selection”, Proceedings ICSE 1996, p. 201–209.

    Google Scholar 

  13. Kano, Noriaki; Seraku, Nobuhiko; Takahashi, Fumio; Tsuji, Shinichi; “Attractive Quality And Must-Be Quality”, In: Quality, No. 2, 1984, 39–44. (in Japanese)

    Google Scholar 

  14. Maiden, Neil A.; Ncube, Cornelius; “Acquiring COTS Software Selection Requirements”, IEEE Software March/April 1998, 46–56.

    Google Scholar 

  15. Morisio, Maurizio; Tsoukiás, A.; “IusWare: a methodology for the evaluation and selection of software products”, IEE Proceedings on Software Engineering, Vol. 144, No 3, June 1997.

    Google Scholar 

  16. Ncube, Cornelius; “A Requirements Engineering Method for COTS-Based Systems Development”, PhD Thesis, City University London, May 2000.

    Google Scholar 

  17. Pohl, Klaus; “Process-Centered Requirements Engineering”, Advanced Software Development Series, J. Wiley & Sons Ltd., Taunton, England, 1996.

    Google Scholar 

  18. Saaty, Thomas L.; “The Analytic Hierarchy Process”, McGraw-Hill, New York, 1990.

    Google Scholar 

  19. Tran, Vu; Liu, Dar-Biau; “A Procurement-centric Model for Engineering Component-based Software Systems”, Proceedings of the 5th International Symposium on Assessment of Software Tools (SAST’ 97), p. 70–79.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Software Systems Engineering, University of Essen, Germany

    Klaus Pohl & Andreas Reuys

Authors
  1. Klaus Pohl
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Andreas Reuys
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Philips Medical Systems Nederland B.V., Veenpluis 4-6, 5684, PC Best, The Netherlands

    Frank van der Linden

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2002 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg

About this paper

Cite this paper

Pohl, K., Reuys, A. (2002). Considering Variabilities during Component Selection in Product Family Development. In: van der Linden, F. (eds) Software Product-Family Engineering. PFE 2001. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 2290. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/3-540-47833-7_4

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/3-540-47833-7_4

  • Published:

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-540-43659-1

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-540-47833-1

  • eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation