On Software Components and Commercial ("COTS") Software

The software industry is struggling to understand the meaning and implications of component-based software. A number of different perspectives have emerged concerning the nature of "software components", but one perspective that is particularly strong is that software components will be (or are already) commercial software products. In this paper I argue that if this commercial perspective is valid, then the goal of replaceable, standard components will never be achieved because component providers will resist might and main the emergence of the commodity-style markets implied by component substitutability. However, this strong assertion must be reconciled with manifest evidence that a marketplace of commercial software "components" is emerging. This reconciliation takes the form of a reference model that describes and relates different market niches for software components and engineering skills in an emergent component-based software paradigm.