Evaluating Off-The-Shelf Architectural Components

Reuse of off-the-shelf (OTS) components is becoming increasingly important in most software development projects. Despite such importance, reuse of OTS components at the software architectural level has many challenges before a component-based application (CBA) can successfully be developed. This paper presents a methodology for matching the software developer’s needs against a repository of architectural components and ranking the components when there are multiple near matches. The architects can systematically evaluate the architecture of an off-the-shelf component and explore how components with different architectures can be combined to realize a (sub-) system in the architecture of a CBA. The methodology illustrated in this paper uses the Unified Modelling Language (UML) class diagram to represent (part of) the architecture of an off-the-shelf component for a Home Appliance Control System (HACS).