Measuring and Communicating Component Reliability

Much of the research on component-based software engineering assumes that each component has a single service. This simplifies analyses but it is a significant departure from actual components. This paper reports on an investigation of the feasibility of using design constructs as a means of treating several methods as a single unit. We introduce the CoRe Method for measuring and communicating component reliability based on grouping services according to the various roles a component can fulfill. Grouping the services of a component into a few sets satisfies the goal of simplicity while still providing the designer with a more realistic and useful model of component reliability. The CoRe method is described and results of a preliminary experiment in its use are reported.