CBSE Framework

To develop software by integrating components, components must be developed for reuse. Therefore, CBSE must address both the development of reusable components and the development applications using the reusable components, as shown in Figure 1 [4].

Application-oriented reusable components must be developed for the common needs of the application domain not for a specific application to maximize reusability. Domain engineering, therefore, consists of activities for identifying commonalities of the applications in the domain (i.e., domain analysis), developing alternative architectures, and developing reusable code components for the architectures. Once domain engineering is performed for a domain and reusable components are created, application engineering may proceed applying the reusable components. User requirements analysis may be performed using the domain commonality model and an architecture appropriate for the application may be selected. Based on the selected architecture, the application software can be created by integrating reusable code components.

One of the most important elements for successful CBSE is the development of reusable (i.e., implementing common needs/functions, adaptable, maintainable) components. Some of the important component engineering principles are discussed in the following section.