A systematic methodology for adapting software components

Abstract

Component-based development (CBD) is an effective paradigm for building software systems with reusable assets, where components often come in black-box form and expose interfaces while hiding internal details. Components are reused in developing various applications in a domain. However, the behavior provided by a component may not exactly match to the specification of an expected component. This is called a partial matching problem. Therefore, they have to be adapted for specific requirement. A component can be adapted in two ways; internal and external adaptation. For internal adaptation, the mismatch between a candidate component and the specification of an expected component can be resolved by some customization mechanism. However, if the component does not provide adequate customizability, it has to be adapted externally by using some external adaptation mechanism such as smart connector [1]. In this paper, we first propose a taxonomy for various mismatches during component acquisition. Then, we define a systematic process and practical instructions for identifying mismatches and adapting components.