A Metrics-Guided Framework for Cost and Quality Management of Component-Based Software

The growing reliance on commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) components for large-scale projects has introduced a new paradigm in software engineering, requiring the design of new software development methods and business processes. Large-scale component reuse leads to savings in development resources, but increases the system\u27s vulnerability to risks arising from third-party development, as well as integration difficulties, performance constraints, and incompatibility of components from multiple vendors. The framework discussed in this chapter aims to alleviate quality concerns for COTS-based systems by using software metrics to accurately quantify factors contributing to the overall quality of a component-based system, guiding quality and risk management by identifying and eliminating sources of risk. Tradeoffs between cost and quality in a component-based system are discussed, as well as analytical techniques and formal models for cost and quality decisions