Building Systems from Commercial Components (SEI Series in Software Engineering) [Paperback]

Commercial software components can dramatically reduce the cost and time required to develop complex business-critical systems. However, integrating them offers stiff challenges that are not well understood by most software practitioners, and there have been many spectacular failures. Now, a team of authors from the Software Engineering Institute draws upon the lessons presented by both the failures and the successes, offering a start-to-finish methodology for integrating commercial components successfully. The authors examine failed integration projects, identifying key lessons and early warning signs, including the failure to account for loss of control over engineering design and production. Drawing upon both successes and failures, they present proven solutions for establishing requirements, evaluating components, creating flexible system designs that incorporate commercial components; and managing multiple concurrent design options linked to external market events and feasibility proofs. They also show how to build "just-in-time" competency with commercial components and integration.

There is a growing gap between the theory and the practice of component-based software design. The theory largely assumes that the design task is to develop specifications for software components; in reality, however, most component-based design relies on preexisting components, which have preexisting specifications. With more and more software being developed from commercially available components, it is increasingly critical to recognize the novel challenges and unfamiliar constraints inherent in such design. Describing a number of proven techniques, this book provides much-needed guidance on how to build component-based systems in a real working environment.

Building Systems from Commercial Components is divided into three parts:

• Part I identifies the design challenges posed by commercial components, presents specific engineering techniques that meet those challenges, and describes workflows for incorporating those techniques into an existing development process.
• Part II features an extended case study of a project from the authors' own experience, with each chapter illustrating the challenges posed by commercial components and the techniques used to meet those challenges.
• Part III provides advice on how to get started using the techniques described in the book, and makes some predictions about the future course of component-based development.

This book is intended for anyone who practices, or wishes to practice, component-based software development. System architects, chief engineers, project managers, chief technology officers, and front-line software engineers and programmers will each find here something of immediate value. The authors, through their work at the Software Engineering Institute, are able to share a broad and practical understanding of both the problems you will face and the solutions you will require as you design component-based systems.