A Framework for Identifying Reusable Software Components Using Formal Concept Analysis

Component-based development (CBD) is concerned with enabling the design of software systems by reusing pre developed components. One important activity in CBD is to analyze the business domain and identify potential reusable domain components. Identifying business components, however, can be challenging due to the different nature of the application requirements even within the same domain. Moreover, the rapid change in customer needs and business requirements might render domain components obsolete if these components can not accommodate changes with minimal cost and effort. This paper presents a novel framework for identifying and encapsulating stable domain components. The framework makes use of the theory of Formal Concept Analysis (FCA) and the concepts of Software Stability Model (SSM) to identify stable domain components. The details of the proposed framework are described and then demonstrated by the means of a case study.