Multi-level selection of reusable software components

Component-Based Software Development involves integration of many different self-contained units of software that perform a specific task known as software components with the existing software components as plug-ins which can be used again and again. The present crisis in the software development forces on development of the reusable components which build once can be reused when and where ever required. Reusability is our goal and there are many sub-factors that affect the reusability of the components like portability, configurability, maintainability, adaptability, understand ability, documentation quality, interface complexity, etc. Selection of reusable software components is the crucial step in developing a quality system. Thus, this paper surveys all the factors related to reusability and proposes a new framework based on Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP). The proposed framework can also be used for ranking different commercial off the shelf (COTS) software components using AHP technique.